Hope for Patients with Gastric Cancer

An increase in the survival rate was noted among patients randomized to surgery with perioperative chemotherapy compared with those who received surgery alone.

In the U.S., most patients with cancers of the stomach and lower esophagus present with locally advanced disease, and cure is rare. In previous studies, adjuvant chemotherapy has failed to provide a significant survival advantage compared with surgery alone for gastric cancer. In this European multicenter study (called MAGIC), investigators randomized 503 patients with resectable adenocarcinomas (of the stomach, esophagogastric junction, or lower esophagus) to perioperative chemotherapy plus surgery or to surgery alone. Patients in the chemotherapy arm received three preoperative and three postoperative cycles of intravenous epirubicin and cisplatin on day 1 and continuous intravenous infusion of 5-fluorouracil (ECF) for the entire 21-day c…

Reviewing Authors

Henry Mark Kuerer, MD, PhD, FACS

David H. Ilson, MD, PhD