An observational study evaluating the expression of HER2 (1+, 2+, and 3+) with HLA A2/A3+ in gastric adenocarcinoma patients.

18 Background: Gastric cancer remains a major health issue and results in 800,000 annual deaths worldwide. Despite approximately 50% of the gastric and gastroesophageal (GE) junction adenocarcinomas are diagnosed with resectable disease, 40% of disease recurrence is observed in 24 months. While trastuzumab has shown to increase overall survival in HER2 IHC3+ metastatic disease, no current therapies are available for low expressing, or IHC 1+ or 2+ patients. NeuVax (nelipepimut-S) is an immunogenic peptide epitope derived from the extracellular domain of HER2/nu protein administered in combination with rhGM-CSF. NeuVax binds to HLA-A2 and A3 on tumor and antigen presenting cells (APC) and elicits a proliferation of CD8+ (cytotoxic) T-cell immune response against HER2 expressing cancer cells. A proof of concept clinical study will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of nelipepimut-S to prevent recurrence and increase disease free survival in gastric cancer patients with all levels of HER2 expression wi...