Topic: Progress in Precision Medicine in the Management of Gastric Cancer

Special Issue Introduction/Summary: The treatment of gastric cancer has undergone significant change over recent decades due to enhancements in our understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease. The time-honored histologic classification of intestinal and diffuse type cancers has now been refined by a molecular classification of gastric adenocarcinoma proposed in 2014 by the Cancer Genome Atlas group based on tumor biology. Understanding the genomic and molecular mechanisms in gastric cancer has opened the possibility for more precise tumor specific treatment approaches. After clustering the data from various investigational platforms including the assessment of protein expression, mRNA sequences, micro-RNA sequences whole exome sequences, DNS methylation patterns and somatic copy number, in addition to assessing for microsatellite instability, four major grouping of gastric adenocarcinoma have been proposed. The Epstein-Barr virus positive tumors representing about 10% of gastric adenocarcinomas, the microsatellite unstable tumors 20%, the chromosomally genomically unstable 50% and the remaining 20% were genomically stable tumors.

This special issue will highlight the current treatment approached to each of these gastric cancer subtypes:
● Epstein-Barr Virus positive tumors;
● Microsatellite Unstable tumors;
● Familial gastric cancers;
● Chromosomally unstable GEJ/cardia tumors;
● Diffuse type gastric cancers;
● Signet ring cell carcinomas;
● HER2 positive tumors;
● Microbiome and gastric cancer.

Epstein-barr virus (EBV), DNA hypermethylation, microsatellite instability, familial gastric cancers, PDL1, PDL2, HER2, diffuse gastric cancers: signet ring cell, microbiome

30 Apr 2024