Gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is still a major health problem and a leading cause of cancer mortality despite a worldwide decline in incidence. Primarily due to early detection of the disease, the results of treatment for gastric cancer have improved in Japan, Korea and several specialized Western centres. Surgery offers excellent long-term survival results for early gastric cancer (EGC). In the Western world, however more than 80 % of patients at diagnosis have an advanced gastric cancer with a poor prognosis. The aim of surgery is the complete removal of the tumour (UICC R0-resection), which is known to be the only proven, effective treatment modality and the most important treatment-related prognostic factor. The prognosis after surgical treatment of gastric cancer remains poor. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a rising option in locally advanced gastric cancer. Adjuvant chemoradiation has been shown to be beneficial in gastric cancer patients who have undergone suboptimal surgical resection. The benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy alone seem to be very small, Untreated metastatic gastric cancer is associated with a median survival of only 3 – 4 months, but this can be increased to 8 – 10 months, associated with improved quality of life, with combination chemotherapy. Currently, no standard combination chemotherapy regimen exists, although regimens utilizing both cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil, such as epirubicin/cisplatin/fluorouracil (ECF) or docetaxel/cisplatin/fluorouracil (DCF) are amongst the most active. Newer chemotherapeutic agents, including irinotecan, oxaliplatin and taxanes, show promising activity, and are currently being tested with biologics in clinical trials.

Keywords: gastric cancer, epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnostic, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy