Dr. Ahn on Biomarker-Driven Strategies in Gastric/GEJ Cancers

Daniel H. Ahn, DO, oncologist and internist, Mayo Clinic, discusses biomarker-driven strategies in gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancers.

Physicians know that for certain targets, specifically HER2, there is a biomarker-driven strategy. CLDN18.2 will be a potentially relevant biomarker-driven strategy, as well as PD-L1, explains Ahn. For the vast majority of patients—about 70%—they are not going to have a biomarker-driven strategy. Studies that have tried to look at VEGF as biomarkers have shown only prognostic but not predictive indications. Time will tell for the vast majority of patients, says Ahn.

It is very easy to combine certain agents in which physicians know there is efficacy in certain biomarker-driven strategies, such as HER2 and PD-L1. Research needs to focus on the patients who do not have this strategy, says Ahn, since this usually makes up the vast majority of patients. Specifically, targets that may be overexpressed—such as proteins or extracellular membrane receptors—that are prevalent in certain tumor types, such as CLDN18.2, says Ahn.