Gastric Cancer Registry Team Reports Major Progress in Webinar
In April, Hanlee Ji, MD, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University and principal investigator of the Gastric Cancer Registry, presented a one-hour webinar, during which he described exciting progress made in recent months in building out the registry and the tools it offers to oncology researchers.

The registry, said Ji, offers “future directions that are opportunities for collaboration and expansion of what we believe will be a very invaluable dataset that has clinical ramifications.”

The Gastric Cancer Registry was founded a decade ago at Stanford and has grown with ongoing funding from the Gastric Cancer Foundation. Most recently, the Foundation committed $257,856 to support a major expansion of the registry this year. The funding will allow the registry researchers to genetically sequence 200 gastric tumor samples from the Intermountain Healthcare Biorepository (IMH-BR), greatly expanding the data included in the recently launched Genome Explorer, a HIPAA-compliant web portal that scientists can use to perform genomic analyses and study relationships between patient symptoms and the genetic characteristics of their tumors.
The Gastric Cancer Registry is actively seeking new participants who have been affected by gastric cancer. Click here for more information and online enrollment.
Foundation-Funded Research Receives Major Award from DOD
Congratulations to Dr. Jaffer Ajani and the MD Anderson Cancer Center research team on receiving a prestigious $2.43 million award from the Department of Defense (DOD) to continue their important research into gastric cancer. 

The Gastric Cancer Foundation provided seed funding in 2019 to support this project, particularly its focus on cancer that has spread into the peritoneal cavity. Approximately 20 percent of patients newly diagnosed with gastric cancer already present with peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC), and about 45 percent of these patients eventually develop PC. We look forward to reporting progress that can bring better treatment options to patients afflicted with this disease.
Early-stage seed funding is extremely important because it enables researchers to generate sufficient preliminary data to submit compelling and competitive applications for large grants. It is often difficult for researchers to obtain this type of support. The Gastric Cancer Foundation has made early funding a special focus of its research strategy.
Spring Asparagus Salad with Lemon Yogurt Dressing

This month, Chef Hans Rueffert is sharing a recipe that celebrates Spring in the best way Hans knows how; Asparagus is nutritious, delicious, inexpensive and easy to prepare. It’s low in calories and a great source of nutrients, including fiber, folate and vitamins A, C and K.
A special note from Chef Hans: 

"I planted asparagus in my modest vegetable/herb/fruit garden several years ago, and it has finally started paying off. Every Spring I anxiously wait for the kelly-green asparagus shoots to break through ground and reward me with a dozen or so crisp stalks of deliciousness. For me, it’s not the calendar, but the asparagus that marks the beginning of Spring and it brings me joy each and every year..." Read More

Find all episodes at the Gesundheit Kitchen on gastriccancer.org.
Research Roundup
antibodies immunotherapy dna
Recent advances in gastric cancer research include a groundbreaking FDA approval and more.

The FDA approved the first immunotherapy for the first-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer, Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo. The approval was based on phase 3 trial data showing that combining the drug with certain types of chemotherapy improved survival over chemotherapy alone.

A study in the U.K. found that being overweight raises the risk of gastric cancer in women but not men, suggesting that weight management would be a good preventative measure in women.

In a phase 2 trial in advanced gastric cancer with high expression of the CLDN18.2 protein, adding Ganymed Pharmaceuticals’ experimental antibody drug zolbetuximab to chemotherapy improved progression-free and overall survival as compared to chemo alone.
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