RILOMET doesn’t spell relief.

We’ve had some ups and (mostly) downs this year with GI cancers. Now a new target is in town: the c-Met receptor of the hepatocyte growth factor. And any target who’s any target these days has its very own targeted agent, in this case rilotumumab. This month’s publication of RILOMET-1 assesses unresectable and/or metastatic gastric or esophagogastric junction (EGJ) cancers treated with the established chemo regimen epirubicin/cisplatin/Xeloda (ECX) +/- rilotumumab. Unlike its phase 2 predecessor which showed marked improvement in overall survival (OS) from 5.7 -> 10.6 months, OS in the phase 3 component was dismayingly diminished from 10.7 -> 8.8 months (p=0.003...and not in the good way). Looks like the T-word these patients really need may not be Targeted-therapy but Taxane.