New Connections and Exciting Research at the 2026 ASCO GI Summit
Gastric Cancer Foundation was an enthusiastic participant in the 2026 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, held in early January in San Francisco. The Foundation was a first-time exhibitor at the conference, where we were represented by our new executive director, Harriet Patterson, MPH, as well as board members Susanna Nichols, secretary/treasurer, and Hans Rueffert, our patient advocate and “chef without a stomach.”
During the conference, we connected with the broad gastric cancer community, networking with other patient advocates and organizations to advance issues critical to supporting gastric cancer research and improving patient care. We issued a joint statement with several other patient advocacy groups to underscore our collective commitment to our work and to putting patients first. We also met with our National Sustaining Sponsors and other industry partners to share updates about the Foundation and our plans for the coming year.
For Patterson, who has spent the last 20-plus years working in patient advocacy, the conference marked an energizing and valuable introduction to the gastric cancer community. “I am excited to be leading Gastric Cancer Foundation alongside our passionate and committed board, and this time at ASCO-GI was an inspiring start to the year,” she said.
The ASCO GI Symposium featured research from two key initiatives supported by the Gastric Cancer Foundation: the Gastric Cancer Registry at Stanford University and Test Your Biomarkers, a program managed by the GI Cancers Alliance. A poster from a team led by Stanford professor and the registry’s primary investigator, Hanlee Ji, MD, demonstrated how single-cell gene expression data derived from registry samples are driving new insights that could point to new treatment targets. In another poster, the GI Cancers Alliance reported results from focus group research that revealed significant deficits in biomarker awareness among patients with a wide range of GI cancers.
Many of Gastric Cancer Foundation’s corporate partners presented encouraging research updates from clinical trials of new and existing gastric cancer treatments. They included Jazz Pharmaceuticals, which presented positive data from a clinical trial of its antibody drug Ziihera plus chemo, as well as a combination of Ziihera, chemo and BeOne Medicines’ immunotherapy drug Tevimbra. Daiichi Sankyo presented data supporting the use of its HER2-directed antibody Enhertu as an early-line treatment for gastric cancer, as well as plans for a new trial testing a novel combination treatment.
Our time at the ASCO GI Symposium left us feeling optimistic about the future of gastric cancer research and treatment—and the many collaborations that will advance innovations in the field. “Progress happens most often in partnership with others,” Patterson said. “When we come together as a community to share perspectives and ideas, to collaborate and to build on new scientific advances, it helps catalyze new areas of progress.”
