Join Jaffer Ajani, MD and Brian Badgwell, MD as they present their multidisciplinary expertise on a range of cases pertaining to gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer is the fifth most frequently diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of death from cancer in the world. Surgery with lymph node dissection is the primary treatment for patients with localized resectable gastric cancer. However, surgery alone is an insufficient therapy for most patients due to high rate of recurrences and poor overall survival rates. Combined modality therapy should be considered for all patients with localized gastric cancer treated with a curative intent. The results of several randomized trials support the use of preoperative and/or postoperative therapy (perioperative chemotherapy, postoperative chemoradiation or postoperative chemotherapy) as an adjunct to surgery. The choice of appropriate preoperative and/or postoperative therapy depends on the stage of the disease, the type of lymph node dissection (D1 vs. D2) and surgical margins (R0 vs. R1/R2 resections). Current research is focused on understanding the molecular heterogeneity of gastric cancer and developing more effective targeted therapies for advanced or metastatic disease.