Administering the drug Zolbetuximab along with chemotherapy to patients with advanced gastric cancer reduces the risk of disease progression and death by 29% by enhancing the immune response to eliminate cancer cells.
Gastric cancer was responsible for the deaths of 4,757 people in Spain in 2022, according to data from the latest report of ‘Cancer figures in Spain’, which also indicates that in 2024, 6,868 new cases of this neoplasia are expected to be diagnosed in our country. This disease is one of the main causes of tumor-related death, due to the fact that it is usually diagnosed late and the rapid spread of tumor cells in the body, hence the importance of finding treatments that improve its prognosis.
In two international clinical trials, a team of scientists, including researchers from the University Medical Center Leipzig, has studied a drug that could prolong patients’ lives. Thanks to recently published data, the drug zolbetuximab has been approved in Europe, and it is expected that gastric cancer patients in Germany will be able to start receiving this treatment later this year. The results have been published in the prestigious journal The New England Journal of Medicine.
Zolbetuximab helps kill cancer cells
“The results of these trials are very relevant for oncology research. They demonstrate that patients with advanced gastric cancer, treated with zolbetuximab, live longer and the progression of the disease is slowed down. This is a significant advance for patients suffering from this serious and often lethal disease,” says Professor Florian Lordick, director of the University Cancer Center in Leipzig. This highly experienced oncologist participated in the international design of the trials and facilitated the inclusion of German patients.
“We have been able to offer zolbetuximab in early clinical trials here at the University Medical Center Leipzig. We treated numerous patients with advanced gastric cancer and saw positive results. We are now very pleased that the European Medicines Agency has approved this targeted therapy following the large phase III trials,” adds Professor Lordick.
In the two trials, a total of 1,072 patients worldwide were treated with zolbetuximab or a placebo. The results indicate that people with advanced gastric cancer who received zolbetuximab along with chemotherapy survived longer than those who received chemotherapy alone. In this investigation, the combination treatment significantly reduced the risk of disease progression and death by 29%.
People with advanced gastric cancer who received zolbetuximab along with chemotherapy survived longer than those who received chemotherapy alone
All participants in the trials had gastric cancer with increased expression of the protein claudin 18.2. Zolbetuximab is an antibody that specifically targets this protein. About one in three patients have elevated levels of claudin 18.2 in their gastric cancer, but this protein is rarely found in healthy tissues outside the stomach, making it an attractive target for tumor-specific treatment.
The compound zolbetuximab was developed in Germany more than a decade ago and has since undergone various phases of research until its clinical use in patients. It is given by intravenous infusion to people with advanced gastric cancer in combination with chemotherapy. Once in the bloodstream, it targets tumor cells that express claudin 18.2, binds to them, and triggers an immune response that helps eliminate the cancer cells.
