[Further recognition and improvement of multimodality treatment for advanced gastric cancer]

Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignancies in China, which remains in high incidence and mortality. At present, radical surgery remains the cornerstone of multidisciplinary treatment in advanced gastric cancer, but is not the only one. In order to improve prognosis, it is necessary for surgeons to realize and emphasize the idea of comprehensive treatment. Accurate preoperative TNM staging is a prerequisite for selecting reasonable therapeutic modality. Based on standard surgery, multimodal treatments involving (neo-) adjuvant chemotherapy, radiotherapy or molecular target agents still need to be optimized for the best oncologic outcome with minimal morbidities. As to metastatic and late cases, personalized strategy is being acknowledged to prolong survival time and improve quality of life. A deeper understanding of high heterogeneity and biological characteristics of gastric cancer should be carried out, and multidisciplinary team collaboration is quite important to achieve an optimal treatment mode both standardized and individualized, which will benefit every patient.