Herceptin's ToGA trial in gastric cancer (2010)
The ToGA trial showed trastuzumab, branded Herceptin, helped gastric cancer patients whose tumors carried the HER2 protein. It was the first time a biomarker-defined targeted drug worked in this cancer. Roughly one in five gastric tumors qualified.
Regulators approved trastuzumab for HER2-positive gastric cancer, adding a targeted option to chemotherapy.
Testing tumors for a molecular marker before treatment became standard practice in gastric cancer.
It set the template Innovent now follows: find a protein on the tumor, select patients who carry it, then aim a drug at it.
