Progress in conversion therapy for stage IV gastric cancer

Abstract

Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignancy in China. Most of the patients of gastric cancer treated clinically are in advanced stage. In the past years, with the progress of anti-cancer drug therapy, after the comprehensive treatment based on drugs therapy of inoperative stage IV gastric cancer, some cases can reduce the tumor stage and get the opportunity of radical operation. Some of the patients who underwent surgical treatment can get the chance of long-term survival. The results of REGATTA trial confirmed that palliative surgery plus chemotherapy could not improve the long-term survival of patients with stage IV gastric cancer. Neoadjuvant intraperitoneal plus intravenous chemotherapy can reduce the tumor stage of some cases of stage IV gastric cancer with peritoneal metastasis and receive surgical treatment, so as to gain the chance of long-term survival. Regimen of intraperitoneal hyperthermia chemotherapy combined with PHOENIX trial is expected to improve the conversion operation rate of gastric cancer with peritoneal metastasis. Paclitaxel-based three-drug chemotherapy can reduce the tumor stage of some inoperable advanced gastric cancer and obtain the opportunity of radical operation, improving the disease-free survival rate and overall survival rate of patients, thus has become the cornerstone of conversion therapy for stage IV gastric cancer. Antiangiogenic targeted drug apatinib combined with paclitaxel is safe and reliable, and can be used as an alternative for the conversion therapy of stage IV gastric cancer, which provides a new idea for cytotoxic drugs combined with targeted drugs. In the era of immunotherapy, the combined application and first-line application of immunosuppressive drugs has become a clinical consensus. For advanced Her-2 positive esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma cases, the successful exploration of the four-drug combination of chemotherapy+ anti-Her-2 targeted drugs+ anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody combined with the first-line therapy has opened up a new era of transformational therapy for stage IV gastric cancer. Gastric cancer is a malignant tumor with high heterogeneity, the classification of stage IV gastric cancer represented by Yoshida classification is based on imaging, and a more reasonable classification method should be developed in combination with gene detection in the future. Based on this, an individualized and accurate conversion therapy plan is formulated, so as to effectively improve the long-term survival of patients with stage IV gastric cancer.