REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Gastric and Esophageal Cancers
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1654300
Clinical advances and challenges of anti-angiogenic targeted therapy in gastric cancer
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China
- 2Department of Nuclear Medicine, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China
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Gastric cancer (GC) is a malignant neoplasm with one of the highest incidence and mortality rates. However, therapeutic options remain limited for advanced disease. Angiogenesis, a fundamental process in tumor progression, has emerged as a key therapeutic target. To comprehensively evaluate the clinical advancements of anti-angiogenic targeted drugs, this review conducted a systematic search and collation of pertinent literature, revealing that while only ramucirumab achieved regulatory approval for second-line therapy, emerging agents including apatinib and fruquintinib demonstrate significant clinical benefits, particularly in combination with immunotherapy. The review also classifies and summarizes biomarkers with potential predictive value for treatment response, and discusses the current major challenges and potential optimization strategies. This analysis identifies significant gaps in predictive biomarkers and emphasizes that patient stratification and rational combination strategies are essential for optimizing therapeutic outcomes.
Keywords: gastric cancer, Anti-angiogenic, VEGFR inhibitors, biomarkers, clinical trials, precision oncology
Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 07 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Ni and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qi Xu, zjhzxuqi@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.