Drug study sheds light on gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma
Friday, January 16, 2015
Manish A. Shah, M.D., director of gastrointestinal oncology, talks to OncLive about a recent phase II study of mFOLFOX paired with the MET inhibitor onartuzumab for the treatment of metastatic, HER2-negative gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEC). The study found that the addition of onartuzumab to mFOLFOX6 in metastatic GEC did not improve progression-free survival or overall survival in either an unselected population or in MET-positive patients. Despite the results, the study did shed some light on the biology of the disease. It identified several redundant pathways, including HER2, which can be overexpressed even in MET-over expressing tumors. This may explain why a MET inhibitor did not work in this case, says Shah.
