[The present state of chemotherapy of gastric cancer (author's transl)]

The therapeutic results in stomach cancer are still very poor. Especially in advanced stages of the disease, cytostatic treatment is of little value. The most promising drugs available at present are 5-fluoroaracil or its analogues, Mitomycin C, and Chromomycin A3. Proper combinations of cytostatics are expected to become more therapeutic tools. Further chances of improving therapeutic results are seen in the combination of surgery with irradiation and chemotherapy. Such efforts should include individualization of the therapy with regard to factors of the tumor-host relationships influencing the prognosis, and utilization of tumor-biological data.