Therapy of upper gastrointestinal tract cancers

Esophageal and gastric cancers are highly virulent tumors with an especially poor prognosis. They are rather common tumors in the United States with an anticipated annual incidence of approximately 32,000 new patients in 1991. Adenocarcinomas of the proximal stomach and lower esophagus are rapidly increasing in incidence; the reasons for this remain unclear. Endoscopic ultrasonography has offered a new dimension to staging especially of the primary tumor but also shows promise for more accurate identification of nodal metastasis. While stage remains the single most important prognostic variable, biological studies investigating tumor markers are a high priority; aneuploidy and HER-2/neu amplification or overexpression may predict poor outcome in gastric cancer. Esophageal and gastric cancers have a high local and distant failure rate when treated with conventional therapy. New developments in chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant and postoperative setting are under intense investigation in an attempt to improve prognosis for these diseases.