Blood test supports use of potential new stomach cancer treatment

Testing cancers for ‘addiction’ to a gene that boosts cell growth can pick out patients who may respond to a targeted drug under development by AstraZeneca (LLE: AZN), a study has found.

Scientists measured the number of copies of just one gene from cancer DNA circulating in the bloodstream and were able to identify the patients with stomach cancer who were most likely to respond to treatment.

Stomach cancers with many copies of the FGFR2 gene were found to be particularly susceptible to the experimental drug, an FGFR inhibitor, because the tumours had become reliant on, or ‘addicted’ to, the gene in order to grow.