"An Observational Study to Determine the Incidence of of Her 2 Positivity in 100 Consecutive Gastric Cancers"

Gastric cancer remains a major health issue and a leading cause of cancer death worldwide, although the prevalence and mortality of the disease have gradually decreased. The investigators have very few options for patients with advanced disease.

The trastuzumab for Gastric Cancer (ToGA) trial, a pivotal randomized clinical trial of patients with HER-2 positive advanced, mostly metastatic, gastric cancer, proved the efficacy of trastuzumab (anti-Her 2 therapy) in combination with chemotherapy. The median overall survival was significantly prolonged in the trastuzumab-containing arm (13.8 vs. 11.1 months; HR 0.74; p=0.0046) without unexpected toxicity including cardiac events. The survival benefit was most pronounced in the subgroup of high HER-2/neu protein overexpression (median overall survival of 16 months). Only 20% of the patients screened and subsequently enrolled for this study were found to be HER2-positive when utilizing both immunohistochemistry and FISH. Her2 testing is recommended for all patients with advanced gastric cancers and type III oesophageal adenocarcinomas.

Data on Indian patients is lacking. Hence, the investigators plan to test for Her 2 in 100 patients with IHC and FISH in 2+ and 3+ patients.