Surgery is the main treatment for gastric cancer. Early-stage cancers may be resected by endoscopy, while partial or total gastrectomy are recommended when the tumors have spread. Chemotherapy is also used for the treatment of gastric tumors. This can be administered before surgery (neoadjuvant therapy) or after surgery (adjuvant therapy). Most common drugs used for the treatment of gastric cancer include 5-Fluoracil, cisplatin or epirubicin. In the last years novel drugs have been developed to target specific signaling pathways activated in gastric tumors, such as Trastuzumab, which targets HER2, or Ramucirumab, which binds to VEGF receptor. Immunotherapy, namely targeting the check point inhibitor PD-1, has also become a novel and promising strategy to treat gastric cancer.
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