Ramucirumab Plus FOLFOX as Front-Line Treatment in Advanced Gastric or Esophageal Cancer

Johanna Bendell, MD, Director of GI Cancer Research Program, associate director, Drug Development Program, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the results of a randomized, double-blind, multicenter phase II trial that examined FOLFOX with or without ramucirumab as front-line therapy for advanced gastric or esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Clinical Pearls:

• Results of the study were negative in terms of benefit of progression-free survival combining ramucirumab and chemotherapy.
• This study included patients with distal esophageal cancers, GEJ cancers and gastric cancers. Most of the benefit of the combination was seen in patients with GEJ and gastric cancers.
• This may have clouded the overall results in terms of progression-free survival.
• Researchers are working on figuring out if there is a reason why esophageal cancer patients did not seem to benefit from the combination.