East Meets West in the Treatment of Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Gastric cancer is a leading cause of illness and death from cancer worldwide, with nearly a million new cases diagnosed each year and a 5-year survival rate of less than 20% among patients in most parts of the world other than Japan, where the rate is closer to 60%.¹ Early dissemination of the disease through the lymphatic system, blood, and peritoneum has limited the ability of optimal surgery to cure, except in patients with relatively early tumors. The detection of early disease has remained elusive in Europe and North America, but there has been some success in the East, particularly . . .