Gastric and gastro-oesophageal cancer therapy.

Gastric and gastro-oesophageal cancers represent a global health problem. In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the incidence of proximal gastric and distal oesophageal adenocarcinomas. Surgery is the primary therapy for localised gastric or gastro-oesophageal cancer; however, patients treated with surgery have high rates of local and distant relapse as well as an unacceptably low 5-year survival rate. Chemoradiation and preoperative chemotherapy can play an important role for these patients. The outcome of patients with metastatic disease is very poor but a number of newer chemotherapy agents, such as docetaxel, oxaliplatin and S-1, have been identified and some have shown promising results. This article reviews recent trials on localised and metastatic gastric and gastro-oesophageal cancers.