Welcome to This Week in Clinical Trials. Every Monday, we share the most notable news in clinical trial results — what was tested, what was found, and what it means for patients. This is our edition for Monday, June 1, 2026.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals shared results for a drug that helped people with an advanced stomach and throat cancer live longer. A medicine lowered the chance of worsening disability for people with a hard-to-treat form of multiple sclerosis. And researchers in Germany grew heart muscle in a lab and placed it onto failing hearts.
Friendly reminder that you can find plain English summaries of all the latest completed clinical trials at stellatrials.com/learn.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals announced this week that a new drug helped people with an advanced stomach cancer live longer. This cancer can also start in the tube that carries food down to the stomach.
The people in this study had a kind of cancer called HER2-positive. HER2 is a protein found on the surface of some cancer cells. When there is too much of it, the cancer grows faster. About one in five stomach cancers are this type. Doctors already have a drug that targets HER2, but over time the cancer often finds a way to come back.
So researchers tested a newer drug called zanidatamab. It grabs onto the HER2 protein in two spots at once, instead of just one. The goal is to block the cancer's growth signal more fully.
More than nine hundred people joined the study. All of them had cancer that had spread, and none had been treated for it yet. Some got the standard treatment, along with chemotherapy. Others got the new drug, paired with a second medicine that helps the immune system fight cancer, plus chemotherapy.
The people on the new combination lived about twenty-six months, on average. Those on the standard treatment lived about nineteen months.
The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The company plans to bring the findings to regulators.
Roche set out to test whether a medicine could slow down one of the toughest forms of multiple sclerosis, and help people keep the use of their hands. It worked. Let me back up and explain what that means.
Multiple sclerosis is a disease where the body attacks the protective coating around our nerves. Over time, that damage makes it harder to move and to use your hands.
There are a few forms of the disease. This study looked at the hardest one, called primary progressive. With this form, people slowly get worse from the start, with no breaks in between. Only about one in ten people with multiple sclerosis have this type. And until now, there was very little that could slow it down.
The study was large. Just over a thousand people joined, and many were older or already had trouble using their hands and arms. Half got the drug, called ocrelizumab, through a vein twice a year. The other half got a dummy infusion instead. Then researchers followed everyone for almost three years to see who held onto more of their abilities.
The people who got the drug were about thirty percent less likely to see their disability get worse. It was especially good at protecting movement in the hands and arms.
This medicine is already approved for multiple sclerosis. What is new here is the proof that it can help people with more advanced disease, too. The work appeared in the journal The Lancet.
For our last story, we head to Germany. Researchers there tried something brand new for heart failure.
Heart failure means the heart is too weak to pump enough blood. It affects about six million adults in the United States. Once heart muscle dies, it does not grow back on its own. That is a big reason the disease tends to get worse over time.
The team grew fresh heart muscle in a lab. They started with stem cells and shaped them into small patches of beating tissue. Then surgeons placed these patches onto the hearts of people with severe heart failure. Twenty people took part in this early study.
Three months later, the treated part of the heart wall had grown about five millimeters thicker.
This was a small, early test. Some people had serious health problems during the study, and the team is still learning. Longer studies are planned. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
One quick reminder: this show is news, not medical advice. Nothing we cover is meant to replace a conversation with your own doctor about your own care.
That's this week in clinical trials. If any of these conditions affect you or someone you love, head to stellatrials.com — you can search for open trials matched to your situation, and follow the progress of trials as results come in. New episode every Monday. See you next week.