Dr. Cutsem on Challenges of Targeted Therapies in Gastric Cancer

Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, of University Hospitals Gasthuisberg/Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, discusses the use of trastuzumab for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive gastric cancer.

Trastuzumab is utilized as a targeted therapy for both gastric cancer and breast cancer, but gastric cancer has its own unique set of challenges, says Van Cutsem.

While toxicity is not as much of an issue with trastuzumab for gastric cancer as it is for breast cancer, survival is shorter. Resistance is also a challenge, says Van Cutsem, and efforts need to be made to better understand the mechanisms behind it.

<<<

View more from the 2015 GI Cancer Symposium