Multidisciplinary approach for the treatment of gastric cancer

Gastric cancer remains a worldwide public health problem especially in Asia. Over the past decade, the pattern of gastric cancer has considerably changed. Despite declining rates of distal gastric cancer, a trend of significant increasing in the incidence of proximal gastric cancer has been observed in the United States, Europe and Asia (1,2). The histology, tumor biology and clinical course are quite different between the two types of the gastric cancer. For example, diffuse histologic pattern and aggressive clinical course are frequently seen in the proximal gastric cancer. Nonetheless, the management of these two types of gastric cancer remains the same in the current practice.