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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2015; 7(12): 389-400
Published online Dec 15, 2015. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v7.i12.389
Neo-adjuvant chemo(radio)therapy in gastric cancer: Current status and future perspectives
Alberto Biondi, Maria C Lirosi, Domenico D’Ugo, Valeria Fico, Riccardo Ricci, Francesco Santullo, Antonia Rizzuto, Ferdinando CM Cananzi, Roberto Persiani
Alberto Biondi, Maria C Lirosi, Domenico D’Ugo, Valeria Fico, Francesco Santullo, Roberto Persiani, General Surgery Unit, Department of Surgery, “A. Gemelli” University Hospital Catholic University of Rome, 00168 Rome, Italy
Riccardo Ricci, Department of Pathology, “A. Gemelli” University Hospital Catholic University of Rome, 00168 Rome, Italy
Antonia Rizzuto, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Universita degli studi Magna Graecia di Catanzaro, Viale Europa - Localitá Germaneto, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Ferdinando CM Cananzi, Surgical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, 20089 Rozzano, Italy
Author contributions: Biondi A, Lirosi MC, D’Ugo D, Ricci R, Fico V, Santullo F, Rizzuto A, Cananzi FCM, Persiani R equally participated in the conception, design, and drafting of this article; all the authors revised the article critically for important intellectual content and gave final approval of the version to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors do not have any conflict of interest as it pertains to the content of this article.
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: Alberto Biondi, MD, General Surgery Unit, Department of Surgery, “A. Gemelli” University Hospital Catholic University of Rome, Largo A. Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy. biondi.alberto@tiscali.it
Telephone: +39-6-30154511 Fax: +39-6-3051162
Received: March 18, 2015
Peer-review started: March 19, 2015
First decision: April 23, 2015
Revised: May 16, 2015
Accepted: October 12, 2015
Article in press: October 15, 2015
Published online: December 15, 2015
Processing time: 229 Days and 20 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Owing to the results of the most recent randomized phase III studies, neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced resectable gastric cancer has satisfied the determination of Level I evidence. Remaining concerns pertain to the choice of the optimal therapy regimen, strict patient selection by accurate pre-operative staging, standardization of surgical procedures, and reliable criteria for response evaluation. New well-designed trials will be necessary to identify the best treatment plan in pre-operative settings and to understand how to combine the conventional chemotherapeutic drugs with new-generation molecules.