Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 14, 2018; 24(2): 274-289
Published online Jan 14, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i2.274
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer. Is it a must or a fake?
Rossella Reddavid, Silvia Sofia, Paolo Chiaro, Fabio Colli, Renza Trapani, Laura Esposito, Mario Solej, Maurizio Degiuli
Rossella Reddavid, Silvia Sofia, Renza Trapani, Laura Esposito, Mario Solej, Maurizio Degiuli, Surgical Oncology and Digestive Surgery, Department of Oncology, University of Turin, San Luigi University Hospital, Orbassano, Turin 10049, Italy
Paolo Chiaro, Fabio Colli, Department of Surgical Sciences, Digestive and Oncological Surgery, University of Turin, Molinette Hospital, Turin 10126, Italy
Author contributions: Degiuli M designed the study; Degiuli M and Reddavid R edited and revised the study; Chiaro P, Colli F, Reddavid R, Solej M, Esposito L, Sofia S and Trapani R reviewed the literature and drafted the study; all authors equally contributed to this paper for the final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare they have no conflicts of interest related to the work submitted for publication.
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/
Correspondence to: Maurizio Degiuli, MD, Associate Professor, Head, Surgical Oncology and Digestive Surgery, Department of Oncology, University of Turin, San Luigi University Hospital, Regione Gonzole 10, Orbassano 10049, Turin, Italy. maurizio.degiuli@unito.it
Telephone: +39 335 8111286
Received: November 19, 2017
Peer-review started: November 19, 2017
First decision: November 30, 2017
Revised: December 13, 2017
Accepted: December 20, 2017
Article in press: December 20, 2017
Published online: January 14, 2018
Processing time: 55 Days and 21.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for resectable locally advanced gastric cancer has been rapidly introduced in international western guidelines without an evidence-based medicine-related demonstration of its efficacy for a homogeneous population of patients with stomach tumors who received adequate surgery following Japanese Gastric Cancer Association guidelines with an extended (D2) lymph nodes dissection. Additional randomized controlled trials with a larger sample size comparing the newer NAC regimens, including molecular therapies followed by adequate extended surgery with surgery alone are necessary.