A phase 3 study showed that adding fruquintinib to paclitaxel significantly delays progression in patients with gastric or gastroesophageal cancer who have progressed on frontline chemotherapy, but fails to improve overall survival. The FRUTIGA trial enrolled 703 patients and found that the fruquintinib group had significantly better progression-free survival and overall response rate compared to the placebo group, but did not exhibit a significant overall survival benefit. However, there was a nominal but significant overall survival benefit in a subgroup of patients with lymph node metastases and non-diffuse histology. Adverse events were higher in the fruquintinib group. The study was presented at the ASCO Plenary Series and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The limitations include the lack of generalizability due to almost all patients being Asians, lack of an active comparator, and absence of information on subsequent therapies, tumor biology, and biomarkers. Lead study author Rui-hua Xu suggested that fruquintinib plus paclitaxel could be a promising second-line treatment option for patients with advanced gastric/gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma who have failed fluoropyrimidine or platinum chemotherapy.
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Add-On Fruquintinib Delays Progression in Gastric Cancer
