Patients with HER2-negative advanced-stage gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction (G/GEJ) adenocarcinomas typically receive chemotherapy with or without an anti-PD-1 antibody as first-line treatment. Now, data from the phase III COMPASSION-15 trial show that combination of the PD-1 × CTLA4 bispecific antibody cadonilimab plus chemotherapy is also efficacious in this setting.

In this trial, conduced in China, 610 patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to receive chemotherapy (oxaliplatin–capecitabine) plus either cadonilimab or placebo. Overall survival (OS) was the primary end point.