Dr. Marshall on the Results of the DESTINY-Gastric02 Trial in Gastric/GEJ Cancer

John L. Marshall, MD, chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology at Georgetown University Hospital, associate director, Clinical Research, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the results of the phase 2 DESTINY-Gastric02 trial (NCT04014075) in HER2-positive gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancers.

The DESTINY-Gastric02 trial is an extension of the phase 2 DESTINY-Gastric01 trial (NCT03329690) in the Western population of patients with metastatic HER2-positive gastric/GEJ cancer, Marshall explains. DESTINY-Gastric02 enrolled patients with metastatic gastric/GEJ cancer who had previously received HER2-targeted treatments including frontline trastuzumab (Herceptin), which is where trastuzumab is currently considered standard, Marshall explains. As such, patients received fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) as second- or later-line treatment, Marshall adds.

The results of the trial demonstrated a response rate of 38%, which comprised 3 complete responses and 27 partial responses. Many attempts have been made to targeting HER2 after frontline therapy without success, Marshall says. Overall, the data from DESTINY-Gastric02 represent a breakthrough in the treatment of patients with HER2-positive gastric/GEJ cancer and further emphasize a need to enforce efficient molecular profiling in this patient population, Marshall concludes.