Open AccessHarnessing biomarkers of response to improve therapy selection in esophago-gastric adenocarcinoma
Author(s) -
Caroline Fong,
Ian Chau
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
pharmacogenomics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.541
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1744-8042
pISSN - 1462-2416
DOI - 10.2217/pgs-2020-0090
Subject(s) - medicine , biomarker , gastric adenocarcinoma , immunotherapy , clinical practice , oncology , targeted therapy , chemotherapy , adenocarcinoma , biomarker discovery , intensive care medicine , cancer , proteomics , biology , biochemistry , family medicine , gene
Advanced esophago-gastric (OG) adenocarcinomas have a high mortality rate and new therapeutic options are urgently required. Despite recent advances in understanding the molecular characteristics of OG cancers, tumor heterogeneity poses a challenge in developing new therapeutics capable of improving patient outcomes. Consequently, chemotherapy remains the mainstay of systemic treatment, with the HER2 being the only predictive biomarker routinely targeted in clinical practice. Recent data indicate that immunotherapy will be incorporated into first-line chemotherapy, but further research is required to refine patient selection. This review will summarize the clinical strategies being evaluated to utilize our knowledge of predictive biomarkers with reference to novel therapeutics, and discuss the barriers to implementing precision oncology in OG adenocarcinoma.