Perioperative chemotherapy for gastric cancer: the current state

Abstract

Gastric cancer has one of the leading positions in the world in the prevalence and mortality among malignant tumors. The results of surgical treatment of locally advanced gastric cancer remain generally poor due to the high rate of relapse after surgery. Currently, perioperative (pre- and postoperative) chemotherapy in combination with surgery is recommended for patients with stage ≥IB resectable gastric cancer. We analyzed the studies devoted to the problem of choosing the optimal regimen of perioperative chemotherapy in locally advanced and oligometastatic gastric cancer. The highest efficacy was observed in the taxan-containing regimen FLOT which allowed to increase the median overall survival up to 50 months in a randomized controlled phase III trial. The use of perioperative chemotherapy with anti-Her2 therapy, immunotherapy or any other biologic drug remains investigational.