Gastric Cancer in Southern Europe: High-Risk Disease

Author(s):  
Ramon Andrade De Mello

Gastric cancer is an aggressive disease. Several risk factors are involved in gastric cancer pathogenesis, likely Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, genetic factors in hereditary syndromes, lifestyle, and diet. However, well-implemented screening strategies are lacking in most countries, including those in Southern Europe. Nevertheless, gastric cancer outcomes are better in some Southern European countries than in others, likely because of the incidence and distribution of different histologic types. Robotic surgery has been gaining favor as a treatment of early-stage disease, and the need for perioperative chemotherapy or adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for locally advanced disease has been debated. In the metastatic setting, trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy has helped to extend survival compared with chemotherapy alone for HER2-positive disease. This article will describe how gastric cancer is assessed and treated in Southern Europe in an attempt to correlate these approaches from a global perspective.

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thales Paulo Batista ◽  
Lucas Marque De Mendonça ◽  
Ana Luiza Fassizoli-Fonte

Gastric cancer is one of the most common neoplasms and a main cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Surgery remains the mainstay for cure and is considered for all patients with potentially curable disease. However, despite the fact that surgery alone usually leads to favorable outcomes in early stage disease, late diagnosis usually means a poor prognosis. In these settings, multimodal therapy has become the established treatment for locally advanced tumors, while the high risk of locoregional relapse has favored the inclusion of radiotherapy in the comprehensive therapeutic strategy. We provide a critical, non-systematic review of gastric cancer and discuss the role of perioperative radiation therapy in its treatment.


2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 4086-4086
Author(s):  
R. Digumarti ◽  
S. J. Rajappa ◽  
S. Uppalapati ◽  
A. Surath

4086 Background: Gastric cancer is the second most common gastrointestinal cancer in our hospital based cancer registry. This retrospective analysis aims at studying the epidemiology and treatment patterns for gastric cancer at our hospital, which is a tertiary care cancer center for the state of Andhra Pradesh in south India. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the case records of 125 consecutive patients with gastric cancer who presented to our department between Jan 2004 and Dec 2005 were analysed. Data regarding epidemiology, stages at diagnosis and treatment plans were collected. Patients with early gastric cancer received 5FU based chemoradiation or chemotherapy only. Palliative chemotherapy included 5FU/cisplatin based regimens. Results: A total of 125 patients were analysed. The median age was 61years (range 18–82 years). 71% were males and 29% females. Being a tertiary care center, 92% were referred with a confirmed diagnosis on endoscopic biopsy. 30% were smokers, 11% consumed alcohol, 40% had both habits while 29% had neither. The most common part of the stomach involved was the antro-pyloric region (44%) followed by the body (30%), GE junction/cardia (20%) while 6% had diffuse involvement including linitis plastica. At diagnosis, 35% were early stage, 56% metastatic and 8% locally advanced tumors. 90% patients who had surgery for early stage disease had T2,3 tumors. One third had inadequate nodal staging.70% of patients who had curative resections underwent adjuvant chemoradiation and 30% had chemotherapy only. Of all patients with metastatic disease, 65% palliative chemotherapy while 45% opted for best supportive care. Conclusions: The distribution of tumors within the stomach is similar to Japanese data, which may reflect the common etiological factors like high salt diet. The fact that one third of patients had inadequate nodal dissection stresses the relevance of adjuvant chamoradiotherapy protocols. The high incidence of smoking as a contributory factor in the etiology reflects the need for aggressive anti tobacco legislation. The study reiterates the need for inexpensive and novel therapies for palliation of symptoms in patients with advanced disease and widens the scope for collaborative clinical trials. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 1338-1347
Author(s):  
Tabitha Tse ◽  
Sandeep Sehdev ◽  
Jean Seely ◽  
Denis H. Gravel ◽  
Mark Clemons ◽  
...  

Practice and behaviour change in healthcare is complex, and requires a set of critical steps that would be needed to implement and sustain the change. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is traditionally used for locally advanced disease and is primarily advantageous for surgical downstaging purposes. However, it does also offer patients with certain biologic subtypes such as the triple negative or Her2 positive breast cancers the opportunity to improve survival, even in early stage disease. During the height of the pandemic, an opportunity and motivation for the increased use of neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer was identified. This paper describes the conditions that have supported this practice change at the provider and institutional levels. We also include our own institutional algorithm based on tumor biology and extent of disease that have guided our decisions on breast cancer management during the pandemic. Our processes can be adapted by other institutions and breast oncology practices in accordance with local conditions and resources, during and beyond the pandemic.


2012 ◽  
pp. e23
Author(s):  
Thales Paulo Batista ◽  
Lucas Marque De Mendonça ◽  
Ana Luiza Fassizoli-Fonte

Gastric cancer is one of the most common neoplasms and a main cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Surgery remains the mainstay for cure and is considered for all patients with potentially curable disease. However, despite the fact that surgery alone usually leads to favorable outcomes in early stage disease, late diagnosis usually means a poor prognosis. In these settings, multimodal therapy has become the established treatment for locally advanced tumors, while the high risk of locoregional relapse has favored the inclusion of radiotherapy in the comprehensive therapeutic strategy. We provide a critical, non-systematic review of gastric cancer and discuss the role of perioperative radiation therapy in its treatment.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107815522097102
Author(s):  
Kirollos S Hanna ◽  
Maren Campbell ◽  
Adam Kolling ◽  
Alex Husak ◽  
Sabrina Sturm ◽  
...  

Urothelial carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer type in the United States. Although most patients present with early stage disease which is associated with improved outcomes, many will progress to locally advanced or metastatic disease. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have significantly impacted the treatment paradigm for patients and have resulted in improved survival rates. Despite their proven efficacy, many ongoing clinical trials continue to refine combinations with chemotherapy, sequencing of therapies and the role of ligand expression. Additionally, novel targets have been identified for advanced urothelial carcinoma and have led to the approval of the antibody-drug conjugate, enfortumab vedotin, and the fibroblast growth factor receptor-targeted, erdafitinib. Enrollment in a clinical trial is strongly encouraged for all stages of advanced or metastatic disease. Numerous ongoing clinical trials are likely to impact the treatment armamentarium for patients. In this manuscript, we highlight key updates in the clinical management for patients and outline ongoing trials.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gulfem D. Guler ◽  
Yuhong Ning ◽  
Chin-Jen Ku ◽  
Tierney Phillips ◽  
Erin McCarthy ◽  
...  

Abstract Pancreatic cancer is often detected late, when curative therapies are no longer possible. Here, we present non-invasive detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) by 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) changes in circulating cell free DNA from a PDAC cohort (n = 64) in comparison with a non-cancer cohort (n = 243). Differential hydroxymethylation is found in thousands of genes, most significantly in genes related to pancreas development or function (GATA4, GATA6, PROX1, ONECUT1, MEIS2), and cancer pathogenesis (YAP1, TEAD1, PROX1, IGF1). cfDNA hydroxymethylome in PDAC cohort is differentially enriched for genes that are commonly de-regulated in PDAC tumors upon activation of KRAS and inactivation of TP53. Regularized regression models built using 5hmC densities in genes perform with AUC of 0.92 (discovery dataset, n = 79) and 0.92–0.94 (two independent test sets, n = 228). Furthermore, tissue-derived 5hmC features can be used to classify PDAC cfDNA (AUC = 0.88). These findings suggest that 5hmC changes enable classification of PDAC even during early stage disease.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (03) ◽  
pp. 360-368
Author(s):  
Ritchell van Dams ◽  
Ye Yuan ◽  
Clifford G. Robinson ◽  
Percy Lee

AbstractNon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common subtype of lung cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related death. Although durable local control rates are high after surgical resection or definitive radiotherapy for early-stage disease, a substantial proportion of these patients eventually experience regional and/or distant failure and succumb to their metastatic disease. The discovery of immunotherapeutics and targeted biologics has revolutionized the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic disease, improving progression-free and overall survival when incorporated with the current standards of care. Notably, post-hoc analyses and early clinical trials provide a growing body of evidence to support a synergistic effect between radiation and immunotherapy for the treatment of NSCLC from early-stage to metastatic disease. Radiotherapy appears to be capable of not only potentiating the effect of immunotherapy in targeted lesions, but also eliciting an antitumor response in distant lesions without any direct exposure to radiation. This review explores the biologic basis of immunotherapy, targeted biologics, and radiotherapy as well as the preclinical and clinical data that support the combined use of radioimmunotherapy for early-stage, locally advanced, and metastatic NSCLC.


2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 15056-15056
Author(s):  
S. Kilickap ◽  
O. Dizdar ◽  
H. Harputluoglu ◽  
S. Aksoy ◽  
S. Yalcin

15056 Background: Determination of patients (pts) with early stage disease who have a high risk for developing metastatic disease is crucial. We investigated the risk factors associated with metastases development in pts with operable gastric cancer. Patients and Methods: In this retrospective study, pts with stage I-III and non-metastatic stage IV gastric cancer diagnosed between 1990 and 2006 were evaluated. The medical records of all pts including patient characteristics, laboratory results, histopathological examinations, were reviewed. Logistic regression methods were used to determine the risk factors for developing metastasis and to calculate odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: 184 pts (70% male, 30% female) were analyzed. The mean age ± standard deviation was 56.5±11.9. The mean age of female were higher than male (p=0.014). At the time of diagnosis, 13.6% of the pts had stage I, 19.0% had stage II, 53.3% had stage III, and 14.1% had non-metastatic stage IV disease. The tumors were distally localized in 80% of the cases. Median follow-up period was 35 months. During follow up, 51 pts developed metastases. Median time to metastases development was 14 months. Overall survival was shorter in pts who developed metastasis than those who did not. (20 months vs. not reached, respectively, p=0.002). In univariate analyses, stage (p=0.020), tumor localization (p=0.006), extracapsular lymphatic extension (ELE) (p<0.001), the number of metastatic lymph nodes (p=0.001), CEA level (p<0.001), lymphovascular invasion (LVI) (p=0.001), and perineural invasion (p=0.007) were associated with metastasis development. In multivariate analysis, elevated CEA levels (p=0.009; OR: 2.8; CI 95%: 1.29–6.19), LVI (p=0.041; OR: 2.2; CI 95%: 1.03–4.64) and ELE (p=0.029; OR: 2.3; CI 95%: 1.09–4.78) were associated with increased risk of metastasis development while distal localization (p=0.038; OR: 0.42; CI%: 0.18–0.95) was associated with decreased risk in pts with gastric cancer. Discussion: In pts with early stage or locally advanced gastric cancer, elevated CEA levels, LVI, proximal localization and ELE were associated with increased risk of developing metastasis. Aggressive treatment options and closer follow up should be considered for pts with these risk factors. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


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