Ramucirumab combined with paclitaxel as the second-line chemotherapy for elderly patients with disseminated gastric cancer

Abstract

Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The prognosis of advanced gastric cancer remains poor despite therapeutic advances in recent decades. Several recent positive phase III trials established the efficacy of second-line chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer in prolonging overall survival. Many targeted-therapies failed to show a significant survival benefit in GC, only 2 of them are approved FDA: trastuzumab in the 1-st line treatment of HER2-positive gastric cancer and ramucirumab with or without paclitaxel as second line chemotherapy. The article presents the case of effective treatment of patient with Her2-negative advanced gastric cancer. A 76-year-old man had a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of gastric with synchronous multiple liver metastases. He received ramucirumab with paclitaxel as second -line chemotherapy. The size of the liver metastases was reduced and he maintained a partial response for one year. This clinical case report demonstrates that new option in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer can to allow our patients to live longer without losing the quality of life.

Keywords

• advanced gastric cancer
• second line chemotherapy
• ramucirumab
• paclitaxel