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FGFR2 is a growth receptor fused in bile-duct cancer and overproduced in gastric cancer.
FGFR2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase that cancers activate in two different ways. Fusions, found in roughly 10 to 15 percent of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, respond to the selective inhibitors pemigatinib and futibatinib; FGFR2b overexpression or amplification, found in about 3 to 8 percent of gastric cancers, is targeted by the antibody bemarituzumab (FORTITUDE-101 positive on overall survival in 2025) and by FGFR2b antibody-drug conjugates. FGFR3 alterations, present in 15 to 20 percent of urothelial cancers, are the related target of erdafitinib. Acquired kinase-domain mutations limit the durability of FGFR2 inhibitors, and hyperphosphataemia and eye toxicity are class effects. Endometrial cancer is a further setting under study. For a newcomer, FGFR2 is a growth receptor fused in bile-duct cancer and overproduced in gastric cancer, treatable in both.
In plain words · FGFR2 is a growth receptor fused in bile-duct cancer and overproduced in gastric cancer.
FGFR2 is a growth receptor fused in bile-duct cancer and overproduced in gastric cancer.
Receptor tyrosine kinase; FGFR3 alterations are the urothelial counterpart (erdafitinib).
16 products aim at FGFR2: antibodies, small molecules and other agents. Kinases are switched on by binding ATP inside the cell, so most drugs are small molecules shaped to plug that ATP pocket.
Tumour-specific alteration: 1 of 1 label readouts filed under it measure a sequence variant (FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement) absent from normal cells. HPA FGFR2: RNA tissue enriched (brain 549 nTPM); blood lineage lineage enriched (granulocytes 3 nTPM); no normal tissue stained high; highest cancer staining skin cancer (5 of 12 high). Distribution: 3 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Biliary tract cancer (all types), Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer, Bladder & urothelial cancer); Open Targets associates it with 17 specific cancer types at or above 0.5 (gastric cancer, breast carcinoma, colorectal cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, ovarian carcinoma, breast cancer and more). (Rule 3 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)
Sources: FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement label threshold; Human Protein Atlas FGFR2 tissue; Open Targets ENSG00000066468 associations
First described 1990. Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Dionne C.A. et al, EMBO J, 1990, "Cloning and expression of two distinct high-affinity receptors cross-reacting with acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors". Source.
What a pathology or genomic report can say about this target, each with the thresholds approvals use.
Receptor tyrosine kinase; FGFR3 alterations are the urothelial counterpart (erdafitinib).
RNA: tissue enriched (brain 549 nTPM), detected in many normal tissues. Blood: lineage enriched (granulocytes 3 nTPM).
No normal tissue stained high.
Medium only: colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer, melanoma.
HPA FGFR2 tissue · HPA FGFR2 pathology · HPA protein class: CD markers, FDA approved drug targets
Human Protein Atlas version 25.1, antibody staining at reliability approved, enhanced or supported; used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Staining counts are patients per level in the atlas cohort, not population prevalence.
| Cancer | Prevalence | Measure | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bladder & urothelial cancer | 15-20% | FGFR3 alterations (related target) | FGFR3 mutations/fusions; erdafitinib | cBioPortal (TCGA) |
| Biliary tract cancer | 10-15% | Fusion (intrahepatic) | cBioPortal (TCGA) | |
| Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer | 3-8% | FGFR2b overexpression/amplification | FORTITUDE-101 selected IHC 2+/3+ | cBioPortal (TCGA) |
| Gallbladder cancer | 1% | Fusion, mutation or amplification | No FGFR2 fusion among the structural variants deposited for cBioPortal gbc_mskcc_2022; FGFR2 mutation in 3 of 244, 1.2%, and amplification in 3 of 244, 1.2%; no recurrent structural variants in the cohort (Giraldo 2022). | cBioPortal (TCGA) |
| Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma | 0.2% | Gene fusion | cBioPortal structural variants: 4 of 2,336, 0.17% (FGFR2-CAT 2, FGFR2-SHTN1), in pdac_msk_2024; 5.2% of 266 KRAS wild-type tumours (Philip 2022). Other receptor kinase fusions in pdac_msk_2024: ROS1 5 (GOPC-ROS1), RAF1 4, RET 2 (NCOA4-RET), MET 2 (KANK1-MET), ERBB2 2, EGFR 3, FGFR1 2, FGFR3 1 (cBioPortal). | cBioPortal (TCGA) |
Approximate, population-level figures; the measure column says what was counted. Ranges show the midpoint as a bar.
ABSK061 is an experimental small-molecule drug from Abbisko Therapeutics in phase 2 trials for gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer, bladder & urothelial cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer, aimed at HER2 and FGFR2.
Anlotinib is one of the most used cancer pills in China, first approved for lung cancer after other treatments have failed and then for several rarer tumours.
Bemarituzumab is an antibody against FGFR2b, a growth receptor overproduced in about a third of stomach cancers. It improved survival early in its phase 3 trial, but the gain faded with longer follow-up.
CGT4859 is an experimental small-molecule drug from Cogent Biosciences in phase 2 trials for biliary tract cancer, aimed at FGFR2.
The first targeted pill for bladder cancer, for the roughly 20% of tumours with FGFR3 alterations, used after immunotherapy.
Futibatinib is a covalent FGFR inhibitor for FGFR2-fusion bile duct cancer, with the highest response rate of the first-generation drugs.
HMPL-453 is an experimental small-molecule drug from Hutchmed in phase 3 trials for biliary tract cancer, aimed at FGFR2.
Infigratinib is an FGFR inhibitor pill given accelerated approval in the United States in 2021 for bile duct cancer with an FGFR2 fusion, then withdrawn in 2024 when its confirmatory trial could not enrol; it is now being developed for achondroplasia instead.
An oral anti-angiogenic pill that matched sorafenib in liver cancer with higher response rates, and partners with pembrolizumab in kidney and endometrial cancer.
An oral FGFR2 inhibitor approved in September 2026 for bile duct cancer whose tumour carries an FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement, after earlier treatment.
Nintedanib is a triple angiokinase inhibitor pill (VEGFR, FGFR, PDGFR) approved for pulmonary fibrosis and, in the EU, for second-line lung adenocarcinoma with docetaxel. In mesothelioma the phase 2 part of LUME-Meso suggested slower progression in epithelioid disease, but the phase 3 part showed none, a much-cited warning about small randomised phase 2 signals.
Pemigatinib was the first targeted therapy for bile duct cancer, for tumours with an FGFR2 gene fusion.
TAR-210 is an experimental small molecule (intravesical drug-releasing system) from Janssen Research & Development in phase 3 trials for bladder & urothelial cancer, aimed at FGFR2.
A family of quick single-gene tests that decide who can have several bowel, lung, breast and bladder cancer drugs.
A next-generation FGFR inhibitor designed to work after pemigatinib or futibatinib stop working, now in a global phase 3.
TYRA-300 is an experimental small-molecule drug from Tyra Biosciences in phase 2 trials for bladder & urothelial cancer, aimed at FGFR2.
This is the fusion and immune-marker table for the wild-type minority, the group in which RNA sequencing pays for itself.
The reference Western cohort for gallbladder cancer frequencies, deposited on cBioPortal as gbc_mskcc_2022, where the per-gene sample counts on OnCo were read. It supports panel testing at diagnosis: one patient in three has a targetable finding.
Biliary tumours are often diagnosed on tiny biopsies or brushings, so a blood-based panel that detects HER2 amplification and other targets in half of patients is a practical route to testing, with tissue confirmation where the blood is uninformative.
The clearest early head-to-head of the three biliary sites on one platform: for gallbladder cancer it made HER2 the target to test for and showed that IDH and FGFR inhibitors would rarely apply.
Independently arrived at the same partition as the refined Lehmann scheme and added the insight that immune activation within basal-like tumours separates longer from shorter survival, the biology immunotherapy would exploit three years later.
The paper that separated the biliary tree into molecular subtypes: FGFR2 and IDH belong to the intrahepatic ducts, while gallbladder cancer carries HER2, ELF3 and an APOBEC signature. Its hypermutated, checkpoint-high poor-prognosis group foreshadowed immunotherapy.
Query for this target: (TITLE:"FGFR2" OR ABSTRACT:"FGFR2") 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 FGFR2, not a curated reading list.
Shares Relay Therapeutics, Cogent Biosciences, Comprehensive molecular characterization of gallbladder carcinoma and potential targets for intervention, FGF / FGFR signalling and the tags driver, kinase.
Shares Cogent Biosciences, Anlotinib, Lenvatinib, PI3K / AKT / mTOR and the tags driver, kinase.
Shares Black Diamond Therapeutics, Circulating tumor DNA profiling of advanced biliary tract cancers, Molecular characterization of KRAS wild-type tumors in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, SAFIR-ABC10 and the tags driver, kinase.
Shares Molecular characterization of KRAS wild-type tumors in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, Gene fusion, Lenvatinib, Receptor tyrosine kinase activation and the tags driver, kinase.
Shares KRAS wild-type pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Gene fusion, PI3K / AKT / mTOR, Receptor tyrosine kinase activation and the tags driver, kinase.
Shares Molecular characterization of KRAS wild-type tumors in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, KRAS wild-type pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Gene fusion, PI3K / AKT / mTOR and the tags driver, kinase.
Shares Black Diamond Therapeutics, National Cancer Centre Singapore, therascreen companion diagnostic kits (KRAS, EGFR, PIK3CA, FGFR, BRAF), KRAS wild-type pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tags driver, kinase.
Shares Receptor tyrosine kinase activation, Small-molecule kinase inhibitors and the tags driver, kinase.