[Ways to personalized medicine for gastric cancer].

Gastric cancer is the fourth most common tumor and the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. Approximately 70 % of the patients already have lymph node metastases at the time of the diagnosis leading to a median overall survival time of 16.7 months. Complete resection of the primary tumor with D2 lymphadenectomy offers the only chance of cure in the early stages of the disease. Survival of more locally advanced gastric cancer was improved by the introduction of perioperative, adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy of gastric cancer; however, the identification of novel predictive and diagnostic targets is urgently needed. Our own studies on gastric cancer biology identified several putative tumor biologically relevant G-protein-coupled receptors (e.g. AT1R, AT2R, CXCR4, FZD7, LGR4, LGR5, LGR6). Some of these receptors are also putative stem cell markers and may serve as future targets of an individualized therapy of gastric cancer.