Open AccessThe advent of precision therapy in gastrointestinal malignancies: Targeting the human epidermal growth factor receptor family in colorectal and esophagogastric cancer
Author(s) -
Danielle Desautels,
Craig Harlos,
Piotr Czaykowski
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of carcinogenesis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.771
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 0974-6773
pISSN - 1477-3163
DOI - 10.4103/1477-3163.145609
Subject(s) - medicine , colorectal cancer , bevacizumab , targeted therapy , epidermal growth factor receptor , cancer , gastrointestinal cancer , oncology , monoclonal antibody , epidermal growth factor , precision medicine , chemotherapy , cancer research , antibody , receptor , immunology , pathology
Until recently, systemic therapy for gastrointestinal malignancies was restricted to relatively noncancer-specific cytotoxic chemotherapy. Over the last 15 years targeted therapies have become available, most notably bevacizumab in the case of advanced colorectal cancer. Unfortunately, there are no predictive biomarkers to guide the use of this agent. In this review article, we describe the advent of "Precision Medicine" (in part, the use of patient-specific molecular markers to inform treatment) in gastrointestinal cancers: The use of monoclonal antibodies targeting epidermal growth factor receptor in advanced colorectal cancer, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-neu in advanced esophagogastric cancer. In both instances, biomarkers help in selecting appropriate patients for such treatment