Roche touts Herceptin in some stomach cancers

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Roche touts Herceptin in some stomach cancers:

Herceptin, a leading Genentech breast cancer drug, also prolongs patient survival in certain forms of stomach cancer, Swiss drugmaker Roche said Wednesday as it released limited results from a large trial of Herceptin, which Roche markets outside the United States.

...

Herceptin is one of the Genentech cancer drugs designed to target specific molecules that help tumors grow. The antibody drug inactivates a molecule called HER2, which is found at heightened levels in about 20 percent of breast cancer patients. Herceptin is approved in the United States for those HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

Very interesting...  Presumably that means IHC tests similar to the ones used for breast cancer will be developed to determine whether patients with stomach cancer are expressing Her2, and hence are candidates for treatment with Herceptin.  Another possibly application of digital pathology!