Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2019; 11(10): 804-829
Published online Oct 15, 2019. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v11.i10.804
Precision medicine in gastric cancer
Patrizia Bonelli, Antonella Borrelli, Franca Maria Tuccillo, Lucrezia Silvestro, Raffaele Palaia, Franco Maria Buonaguro
Patrizia Bonelli, Antonella Borrelli, Franca Maria Tuccillo, Franco Maria Buonaguro, Molecular Biology and Viral Oncology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS - Fondazione G Pascale, Napoli 80131, Italy
Lucrezia Silvestro, Abdominal Medical Oncology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS - Fondazione G Pascale, Napoli 80131, Italy
Raffaele Palaia, Gastro-pancreatic Surgery Division, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS - Fondazione G Pascale, Napoli 80131, Italy
Author contributions: Bonelli P conducted the literature search, drafted and critically reviewed the manuscript; Borrelli A, Tuccillo FM, Silvestro L and Palaia R helped to draft the manuscript; Buonaguro FM critically reviewed the manuscript; All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Patrizia Bonelli, BSc, Research Scientist, Molecular Biology and Viral Oncology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS - Fondazione G Pascale, via Mariano Semmola, Napoli 80131, Italy. p.bonelli@istitutotumori.na.it
Telephone: +39-81-5903270
Received: April 19, 2019
Peer-review started: April 22, 2019
First decision: June 4, 2019
Revised: July 11, 2019
Accepted: September 4, 2019
Article in press: September 5, 2019
Published online: October 15, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: The onset of gastric cancer is linked to genetic alterations, and environmental and lifestyle factors. Recent classifications (TCGA, ACRG) based on genetic alterations have shown significant neoplasia heterogeneity, which makes the practical application of such approaches more difficult. Numerous studies have been conducted on new specific targeted therapies in advanced gastric cancer in the field of precision medicine. The results have not been satisfactory in terms of survival, so elective therapy remains surgery associated with adjuvant and neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Future research should not underestimate the heterogeneity of gastric cancer when developing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies aimed toward improving patient survival.