Neoadjuvant treatment for locally advanced gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is the second most common and the second leading cause of cancer related mortality in China, which seriously endanger the lives and health of Chinese people. Due to the lack of typical symptoms and screening system of early gastric cancer, about 70% patients with gastric cancer are diagnosed as locally advanced disease in China. Radical resection is the main approach for locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC), however, the clinical effect of gastrectomy alone or gastrectomy plus adjuvant treatment is limited. As a result, there has been increasing interest in the neoadjuvant treatment, which could potentially downstage tumor, eliminate tumor micrometastasis, reduce intraoperative dissemination and postoperative recurrence, thus improve the prognosis of patients with LAGC. The exploration and application of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy of neoadjuvant treatment in LAGC have made continuous progress in recent years. To date, neoadjuvant therapy has been developed as a part of multimodality treatment for patients with LAGC.