Regorafenib: lights and shadows of antiangiogenic therapies in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer stands among the most common causes of cancer death worldwide (1). Median overall survival (OS) for patients with advanced disease is approximately 1 year and chemotherapy still represents the milestone of treatment in most patients (2). While first-line chemotherapy has a well-established role in gastric cancer management, during the past few years several trials clearly demonstrated a significant OS benefit for second-line therapy compared with best supportive care (BSC) alone (3); however, as the gain in survival is at best modest in absolute terms, a careful clinical selection is needed to identify patients who could benefit from salvage therapies (4). Moreover, no standard treatment exists after second-line failure. Thus, searching for new therapeutic opportunities in pretreated advanced gastric cancer patients is imperative for researchers and clinicians.