Palliative radiotherapeutic approaches to symptom and bleeding control in gastric cancer patients

BackgroundGastric cancer is one of the five most common new cancer diagnoses worldwide. Due to the lack of early symptoms, the disease has often reached an incurable stage when first diagnosed. Symptoms in the area of the primary (bleeding, stenosis, pain) as well as in the area of distant metastases can be alleviated by radiation therapy. ObjectiveThis work aims to present the current status of the literature regarding palliatively intended radiotherapy concepts for gastric cancer. Materials and methodsThis work is based on a selective literature search in the PubMed database on the topic of palliatively intended radiotherapy for gastric cancer. ResultsThere is a wide range of palliative radiotherapy indications for advanced gastric cancer. There are many retrospective studies but also prospective randomized trials on their effectiveness and treatment-related toxicity. ConclusionPalliatively intended radiation therapy is a highly effective treatment with low toxicity that is able to alleviate locoregional symptoms quickly. For gastric capillary bleeding, percutaneous radiation is the treatment of choice and exhibits very good response rates. However, the absolute published case numbers are small.