Recent insights into the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in gastric cancer

Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most incident and the fourth deadliest cancer worldwide. GC is a heterogeneous disease from the histological and molecular standpoints. This malignancy is mostly diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease, where the available therapeutic interventions are not effective. The emergence of immunotherapy has transformed the landscape of cancer treatment, including GC, and currently immune checkpoint inhibitors have been approved for the treatment of patients with recurrent/metastatic GC. This review summarizes the main clinical trials evaluating the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in GC. It also highlights the potential of biomarkers for patient selection for GC immune checkpoint inhibition therapy, including programmed cell death ligand 1 expression and tumor mutational burden, and characteristics of the GC molecular classification, such as microsatellite instability status and Epstein-Barr virus infection, as predictors of response to blockade of the programmed cell death 1/programmed cell death ligand 1 axis.

Keywords: biomarkers for immunotherapy; gastric cancer; immune checkpoint inhibitors; molecular classification.