title: Molecular targeted therapy for advanced gastric cancer.
abstract: Although medical treatment has been shown to improve quality of life and prolong survival, no significant progress has been made in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer (AGC) within the last two decades. Thus, the optimum standard first-line chemotherapy regimen for AGC remains debatable, and most responses to chemotherapy are partial and of short duration; the median survival is approximately 7 to 11 months, and survival at 2 years is exceptionally > 10%. Recently, remarkable progress in tumor biology has led to the development of new agents that target critical aspects of oncogenic pathways. For AGC, many molecular targeting agents have been evaluated in international randomized studies, and trastuzumab, an anti-HER-2 monoclonal antibody, has shown antitumor activity against HER-2-positive AGC. However, this benefit is limited to only ~20% of patients with AGC (patients with HER-2-positive AGC). Therefore, there remains a critical need for both the development of more effective agents and the identification of molecular predictive and prognostic markers to select those patients who will benefit most from specific chemotherapeutic regimens and targeted therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea. jkk21c@knu.ac.kr
authors.forename: Jong Gwang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D066246:ErbB Receptors; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C512478:EGFR protein, human; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human
keywords: Drug therapy; Stomach neoplasms; Targeted agents