In Germany, around 17,000 people are diagnosed with gastric cancer every year, and it remains one of the deadliest cancers, largely due to its late diagnosis and how quickly it spreads throughout the body.
Despite advances in medical treatments, finding effective therapies for advanced stages of this disease has been a challenge. However, recent clinical trials have provided hope.
In two international clinical studies, scientists, including researchers from the University of Leipzig Medical Center, tested a new drug called zolbetuximab.
The trials produced promising results, showing that zolbetuximab can significantly extend the lives of patients with advanced gastric cancer.
Based on the success of these trials, zolbetuximab has been approved for use in Europe, and it is expected to become available in Germany by the end of this year. The results of these trials were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
According to Professor Florian Lordick, the Director of the University Cancer Center Leipzig, the findings are a major breakthrough in cancer treatment.
“The results are very important for cancer research. They show that patients with advanced gastric cancer treated with zolbetuximab live longer, and the progression of the disease slows down,” Lordick said.
He was heavily involved in the design of the trials and made sure that German patients could participate early in the testing process.
At the University of Leipzig Medical Center, patients with advanced gastric cancer were among the first to receive zolbetuximab during the clinical trials.
Professor Lordick expressed his satisfaction with the results, highlighting that the approval of zolbetuximab by the European Medicines Agency marks a significant step forward in targeted cancer therapy.
This drug was developed over ten years ago in Germany and has gone through extensive testing at various stages before being approved for clinical use.
The two clinical trials involved a total of 1,072 patients from different parts of the world. These patients were randomly assigned to receive either zolbetuximab combined with chemotherapy or a placebo with chemotherapy.
The results were clear: patients who received the zolbetuximab treatment survived longer compared to those who received chemotherapy alone.
The combination treatment reduced the risk of disease progression and death by 29%, making it a promising new option for treating advanced gastric cancer.
What makes zolbetuximab particularly effective is how it targets a specific protein called claudin 18.2. This protein is found in about one-third of gastric cancer patients and is rarely present in healthy tissue outside of the stomach.
This makes claudin 18.2 an ideal target for a treatment that focuses on attacking cancer cells without damaging healthy cells. Zolbetuximab is an antibody designed to specifically bind to claudin 18.2.
Once it attaches to the cancer cells that express this protein, it triggers the immune system to attack and kill the tumor cells.
Zolbetuximab is administered as an intravenous infusion alongside chemotherapy. After being infused into the bloodstream, the drug travels to the cancer cells, binds to them, and stimulates an immune response to destroy the tumor cells.
This targeted approach increases the effectiveness of the treatment and reduces the chances of harming healthy cells, offering a more focused way to fight gastric cancer.
As the drug becomes available for widespread use, patients with advanced gastric cancer in Europe, and particularly in Germany, will have access to this new treatment option.
It represents an important development in the ongoing fight against one of the most difficult cancers to treat.
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The research findings can be found in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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