Stomach Cancer Awareness Month: 2019 Immunotherapy Research Update

While stomach cancer rates continue to drop globally, researchers continue to seek answers for patients who develop gastrointestinal tumors. In June this year, at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, Dr. Josep Tabernero presented results from the KEYNOTE-062 clinical trial, reporting that first-line treatment with the immunotherapy pembrolizumab may be a promising alternative to chemotherapy in a subset of patients with gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

This November for Stomach Cancer Awareness Month, we celebrate advances in stomach cancer research leading to new treatment strategies with potential to improve patient responses to immunotherapy.

Dr. Kimmie Ng on Changes in Treatment

During the research update panel at the 2019 CRI Immunotherapy Patient Summit in Boston, the director of clinical and biospecimen research in the Center for Gastrointestinal Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute discusses what microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) means for patients with gastrointestinal cancers.

Stomach Cancer Scientist Spotlight

CRI Fellow Valerie Phoebe O'Brien, PhD, aims to address significant gaps in knowledge about how chronic Helicobacter pylori infection and inflammation contribute to stomach cancer. With the aid of a new mouse model, Dr. O’Brien is characterizing this bacterium’s behavior, which may reveal new drug targets leading to strategies to treat or prevent tumor development.

Learn about Dr. O’Brien’s Stomach Cancer Research

Immunotherapy for Stomach Cancer
Information Updated

Since the 2017 FDA approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with PD-L1–positive recurrent or advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, there has been an intense focus on carrying out research to extend the benefits of immunotherapy to more patients with stomach cancer. With new breakthroughs and FDA approvals gaining pace, we keep our stomach cancer immunotherapy information up to date.

View Immunotherapy for Stomach Cancer Webpage

Find a Stomach Cancer Clinical Trial

Hundreds of new and promising cancer immunotherapy treatments are only available to patients in clinical trials. Our Immunotherapy Clinical Trial Finder will match you to trials for which you may be eligible, and you can help speed the development of lifesaving drugs for yourself and others.

Find a Cancer Clinical Trial

Support Stomach Cancer Research

At the Cancer Research Institute, we're dedicated to advancing immunotherapy as a viable treatment for patients with stomach cancer. We fund studies of immune-based cancer therapies that show promise in stomach cancer, including the use of NY-ESO-1 in therapeutic vaccines and studies into B7x-targeting antibodies (an immune checkpoint molecule overexpressed in stomach cancer). This Stomach Cancer Awareness Month, support lifesaving cancer immunotherapy research.

DONATE to Stomach Cancer Research