Ramucirumab therapy in patients with advanced gastric cancer: discussion of a case series

Abstract

Background. Gastric cancer is the fifth most common malignancy worldwide with diagnosis often occurring at an advanced stage. For the majority of advanced gastric cancer patients, chemotherapy typically is used as first-line treatment, although many patients will also require second-line treatment. Ramucirumab (Cyramza®, Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) recently has received worldwide and United States Food and Drug Administration approval for gastric cancer in the second-line setting. Case reports. A series of five advanced gastric cancer cases is presented, outlining each patient’s diagnosis and treatment. All patients were treated with intravenous ramucirumab (8 mg/kg on days 1 and 15) plus paclitaxel (80 or 100 mg/m2 on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle) after disease progression on or after first-line chemotherapy. Patient outcomes are described including an outline of treatment-related adverse events and quality of life. All patients were able to achieve a clinical response and stable disease. Conclusion. Our case series demonstrates that ramucirumab, in conjunction with paclitaxel, is an effective and well-tolerated treatment option for advanced gastric cancer patients who have disease progression following first-line chemotherapy.

Keywords

• gastric cancer
• ramucirumab
• paclitaxel
• case reports
• vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2