Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium, speaking at ASCO 2009: Adding Trastuzumab to Standard Treatment Improves Survival in Patients with HER2-Positive Gastric Cancer: The first randomized, international and multicenter phase III study of trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with gastric (stomach) cancer has found that patients who received trastuzumab plus standard chemotherapy lived significantly longer than patients who received standard chemotherapy alone, with a 26 percent reduction in the risk of death. This is the first time trastuzumab – used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer – has been proven effective in another cancer.