Personalized treatment strategy is beneficial for the survival of metastatic gastroesophageal cancer patients

May 13, 2021

Dr. Daniel Catenacci at the University of Chicago Medicine led a phase 2 pilot study, PANGEA (NCT02213289) in which he and his colleagues studied whether more individualized treatment strategy based on patients’ genetic profiling is beneficial for the survival of the patients with metastatic gastroesophageal (GE) cancers.

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Eighty patients were recruited and initially assigned into 8 different antibody and/or chemotherapy treatment groups based on genetic testing results. The investigator especially focused on the genetic testing results from metastatic tumor biopsy. If patients’ disease progressed with the initial treatment, investigators re-biopsied tumor and analyzed the genetic changes again. Patients were then re-assigned to a new treatment group according to the new genetic testing results.

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Sixty six percent of patients were survived after 1 year from the initial diagnosis when the patients were offered the more personalized treatments. Historically, the 1-year survival rate of metastatic GE cancer is less than 50%. Moreover, 74 % of patients were responded to the first-line treatments, and 99% the patients saw the benefit from the personalized treatments based on their genetic profiling.

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Dr. Catenacci and his team is planning to expand their study to confirm their findings. If you are interested in participating in the trial, please discuss with your oncologists first or contact us at minji@MJpatientadvocate.com.