Anti-MET targeted therapy has come of age: the first durable complete response with MetMAb in metastatic gastric cancer

The MET/hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) signaling pathway plays important roles in oncogenesis and tumor progression in a variety of human cancers. MET/HGF drives an invasive signaling program that can be dysregulated in human cancers through a number of activating mechanisms, including mutations, overexpression, amplification, alternative splicing, and HGF ligand-induced autocrine/paracrine loop signaling. As a testimony of MET-targeting therapeutics is beginning to come to clinical fruition, Catenacci and colleagues report the first case of durable complete response under an anti-MET receptor monoclonal antibody, MetMAb, in a patient with chemotherapy-refractory, advanced gastric cancer metastatic to the liver, found to have high MET gene polysomy and remarkably high serum HGF level. Serum and tissue studies also revealed predictive biomarkers for therapeutic response to MET inhibition.