This agent should become available soon. Melanoma vaccines and other biologic agents are being tested. Clinical trials are necessary to make headway in this difficult to treat disease. Though the incidence of gastric cancer has been falling in Western countries in the past decade, gastric cancer still remains a significant problem. Stage at diagnosis is the determining factor in survival.
Few tumors present in an early stage and most have nodal involvement at diagnosis.
Adjuvant radiation therapy has not been shown to improve survival rates in randomized trials. Two recent reports seem to provide some positive news for the adjuvant therapy of gastric adenocarcinoma. The first report was presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in May 2000. An American intergroup study was conducted randomizing 546 patients with the diagnosis of gastric adenocarcinoma. All patients had curative resections and had no evidence of disease post surgical therapy.