OnCo
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Yung-Jue Bang

Principal investigator of ToGA, the trial that made trastuzumab standard in HER2-positive gastric cancer, and a founder of Korean phase 1 oncology.

Yung-Jue Bang led ToGA and a long series of first-in-human and phase 1 studies at Seoul National University Hospital, including early testing of PD-1 antibodies and PARP inhibitors in gastric cancer, and mentored much of Korea's medical oncology leadership.

Role
Professor Emeritus of Internal Medicine; Seoul National University Cancer Research Institute
Specialisms
Gastric cancerHER2Early-phase drug developmentImmunotherapy

Papers

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TitleJournalYear
Trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for HER2-positive advanced gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer (ToGA)Lancet2010

Key papers

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rctThe Lancet 2023changed practice
SPOTLIGHT: zolbetuximab, the first Claudin 18.2 antibody, added to chemotherapy in gastric cancer

Patients with newly diagnosed advanced stomach cancer should now have Claudin 18.2 tested alongside HER2, PD-L1 and mismatch repair, because roughly a third will be eligible for zolbetuximab, which adds about three months of median survival. The main practical problem is nausea and vomiting during infusions, which needs aggressive prophylaxis. How to sequence or combine it with immunotherapy in PD-L1-positive tumours is unresolved.

Connected

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cancers

1
Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer

targets

2
HER2PD-1

drugs

1
ApprovedMonoclonal antibody (anti-HER2)
Trastuzumab · Herceptin (and biosimilars, Phesgo with pertuzumab)

institutions

1
Seoul National University Hospital

trials

1
ToGA

key papers

1
SPOTLIGHT: zolbetuximab, the first Claudin 18.2 antibody, added to chemotherapy in gastric cancer