Claudin 18.2
A tight-junction protein normally hidden in the stomach lining that becomes exposed in gastric and pancreatic cancers. This dossier gathers the 3 products (2 approved), 2 trials, 0 pathways and 0 resistance routes in the corpus that involve it, with external identifiers so it can be joined to UniProt, ChEMBL, Open Targets and the rest of biology.
Biology
Splice isoform 18.2; expressed in ~30-40% of gastric/GEJ adenocarcinomas and a subset of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
- Gastric/GEJ adenocarcinoma
- Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
- Biliary
Elsewhere: identifiers and databases
Built from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL idsHow common it is, by cancer
Full matrix →| Cancer | Prevalence | Measure | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma | 20-60% | IHC, any expression | Wide range across series | Wikipedia |
| Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer | 35-40% | IHC 2+/3+ in >=75% of cells (zolbetuximab definition) | SPOTLIGHT/GLOW screening | Wikipedia |
Approximate, population-level figures; the measure column says what was counted. Ranges show the midpoint as a bar.
Products by modality and phase
Browse products →| Modality | Approved | Phase 3 |
|---|---|---|
| ADC 1 | — | |
| Antibody 1 | — | |
| Cell therapy 1 | — |
Trials
Evidence ranking →| Trial | Phase | Status | Setting | Result | Products |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLARITY-Gastric 01 NCT06346392 | 3 | Positive | Second- or later-line CLDN18.2-positive advanced gastric/GEJ cancer: sonesitatug vedotin (AZD0901/CMG901) vs investigator's choice | Co-primary endpoints including OS met (July 2026); numbers pending. | |
| SPOTLIGHT & GLOW NCT03504397 | 3 | Positive | First-line CLDN18.2-positive (≥75% of cells), HER2-negative advanced gastric/GEJ adenocarcinoma: zolbetuximab + mFOLFOX6 (SPOTLIGHT) or CAPOX (GLOW) vs chemotherapy | SPOTLIGHT OS 18.2 vs 15.5 months; GLOW OS 14.4 vs 12.2 months. |
Resistance routes that involve this target
Unaddressed routes →The resistance atlas has no route that names this target.
Pathways where it is a node
Pathway-to-drug matrix →No pathway diagram carries this target as a node.
Companion diagnostics and assays
Assay registry →| Assay | Platform | Cut-off | Gates |
|---|---|---|---|
| VENTANA CLDN18 (43-14A) RxDx Assay Roche Diagnostics · FDA CDx 2024 | IHC | At least 75% of tumour cells with moderate-to-strong membranous staining (zolbetuximab, gastric and gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma) |
Preclinical models
All models →No model entry for this target yet; check the cancer entries on the models page.
Open questions
All open questions →- 01
Should CLDN18.2 be attacked with an antibody plus chemotherapy, an ADC, or CAR-T, and at what expression threshold?
clinicalindustryWhy unresolved. Zolbetuximab needs at least 75% moderate-to-strong staining; ADCs such as CMG901 and the Chinese-approved satri-cel appear active at lower expression, but no trial compares modalities or thresholds.
What would answer it. Randomised trials in CLDN18.2-positive gastric cancer with stratification by expression level, and a harmonised IHC assay across modalities.
Source: CLARITY-Gastric 01 (ClinicalTrials.gov)
Ideas and companies
Key papers and the live literature
Preprints →- SPOTLIGHT: zolbetuximab, the first Claudin 18.2 antibody, added to chemotherapy in gastric cancer · The Lancet 2023
Query for this target: (TITLE:"Claudin 18.2" OR ABSTRACT:"Claudin 18.2" OR TITLE:"CLDN18" OR ABSTRACT:"CLDN18") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Claudin 18.2, not a curated reading list.
Export
The dossier as machine-readable JSON: identifiers from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL, products with status, trials, pathways, hotspots, open questions and assays. The full entity record is in the open API at /api/v1/entities/cldn18-2.json. Licence CC BY 4.0.