Multimodal treatment in locally advanced gastric cancer

According to the data of the GLOBOCAN-network of the World Health Organization, there were 952,000 (6.8% of the total) new cases of gastric cancer in 2012, making it the fifth most common malignancy in the world. It represents a substantive change since the very first estimates in 1975 when stomach cancer was the most common neoplasm. More than 70% of cases (677,000 cases) occur in developing countries, and half the world total occurs in Eastern Asia, mainly in China. Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in both sexes worldwide (Globocan, Estimated cancer incidence, mortality and prevalence worldwide in 2012, http://globocan.iarc.fr, 2012). Annually, worldwide 723,000 patients die of this tumor entity. Interestingly, a strong change in incidence rates in relation to the anatomical-topographic localization of the primary tumors in the stomach and esophagus has been experienced. While the frequency of proximal gastric carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the cardiac and subcardiac region in Europe and North America has been constantly rising, distal gastric carcinomas have become less common (Torre et al. in JAMA 65: 87-108, 2015). Furthermore, the relative incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma (mostly localized in the distal esophagus) has strongly increased (Jemal et al. in JAMA 58: 71-96, 2008; Crew and Neugut 31: 450-464, 2004; Pohl and Welch 97: 142-146, 2005).