Effectiveness of immunochemotherapy for gastric cancer: a review of the current status.
Currently, the most effective treatment of gastric cancer is surgical resection of the tumor with lymphadenectomy, which is the standard treatment in Japan. It is important to determine whether chemotherapy or immunochemotherapy regimens may prolong the survival of patients with gastric cancer. Although gastric cancer cells, in general, have a low sensitivity to chemotherapy and a low immunogenicity related to stimulation of immune competent cells, a new method including biochemical modulation and nonspecific immunopotentiation with biological response modifiers (BRMs) has permitted us to augment the clinical efficacy of immunochemotherapy for gastric cancer. Further, promising new drugs are being developed and await testing for their possible benefit in an adjuvant setting, and recent advances in molecular biology may open a new avenue for tumor antigen-specific immunotherapy for gastric cancer. We will review the current status of immunochemotherapy for gastric cancer and examine its clinical benefit for survival.
Toge
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Department of Surgical Oncology, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan. toge@ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D015996:Survival Rate
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D007155:Immunologic Factors