Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer: update

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has recently received increasing attention in an attempt to increase the rate of complete tumor resections, combat systemic metastases, and prolong survival in patients with gastric cancer. The available data indicate that neoadjuvant chemotherapy is feasible and does not increase postoperative morbidity and mortality. Compared to the results that can today be obtained with primary resection and lymphadenectomy, however, preoperative chemotherapy has so far failed to show a clear increase in the rate of complete tumor removal in patients with resectable gastric cancer. In patients with locally advanced or unresectable gastric cancer, preoperative chemotherapy may cause substantial reduction in locoregional tumor mass and thus increase the resection rate. This finding appears to translate into a survival benefit for those who respond to chemotherapy and have subsequent complete tumor resection. Because of severe shortcomings in the study design of the published reports, definite conclusions cannot be drawn from the available studies. Randomized controlled prospective trials are therefore clearly warranted. Exact pretherapeutic tumor staging, standardized resection and lymphadenectomy techniques, diligent evaluation of the resected specimen, and close follow-up are essential when designing these trials to identify subgroups of patients who may benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy for gastric carcinoma.