"An observational study to determine the incidence of Her2 positivity in 100 consecative 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. We 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, we plan to test for Her 2 in 100 patients with IHC and FISH in 2+ and 3+ patients.

Study

Population

N

Histology type

Location

|Intestinal  (% +)

Diffuse (%+)

**Mixed/**Uk (%+)

GEJ

Stomach

|Tanner (1)

Finland

231

21.5

2

5

24

12

|Gravalos (2)

Spain

166

16

7

14

25

9.5

|Lordick (3)

International

1527

34

6

20

32

18

|Matsubara (4)

Japan

87

32.5

6

|Park (5)

Korea

161

8

1

|