Immunotherapy in Gastric Cancer

Gastric cancer is the 5th most frequent cancer worldwide, with more than a million new cases per year. This cancer also has a high mortality rate: 1 out of 12 oncological deaths is attributable to gastric cancer, resulting in a 5-year survival that varies from 10 to 30 percent depending on the country. Mostly this high mortality is attributable to late-stage diagnosis and poor outcomes in advanced cases.

The traditional treatment scheme initiates right after diagnosis and staging, where tumours are classified as operable in the best.case scenario or as inoperable or metastatic. This is a critical step, as in gastric cancer patients surgical intervention gives the best outcomes with a 5-year survival rate for pre-metastatic diagnosis of 67%. Inoperable or metastatic patients are often treated with several lines of chemotherapy and only recently has immunotherapy been approved  for metastatic gastric cancer. 

Immunotherapy has definitely revolutionized gastric cancer treatment, significantly improving patient survival. To understand how this therapy works we need to take a look at the cancer immune response.