Recent progress of chemotherapy and biomarkers for gastroesophageal cancer

Key cytotoxic drugs of chemotherapy for gastroesophageal cancer include fluoropyrimidine, platinum, taxanes and irinotecan. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy is one of the main treatment strategies, especially for esophageal cancer. As molecular target agents, the anti-HER2 antibody trastuzumab for HER2-positive gastric cancer and the anti-angiogenesis agent ramucirumab combined with paclitaxel have been proven to improve the survival of gastric cancer patients. Recently, anti-PD-1 antibodies have become available as second- or later-line chemotherapy. Microsatellite instability is also useful as a biomarker to select patients suitable for immunotherapy. Furthermore, genome-wide analysis has improved our understanding of the biological features and molecular mechanisms of gastroesophageal cancer and will provide optimized treatment selection.