Regorafenib in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer diagnosed and the third most common cause of cancer death globally (1). For patients with operable gastric cancer, complete surgical resection offers the only realistic chance of cure, however up to half of patients treated with optimal multimodality therapy will relapse following potentially curative surgery (2-5). Advanced recurrent or metastatic gastric cancer is associated with a median overall survival of less than 1 year for patients in clinical trials, and only incremental survival benefits have been made with second line therapies (6-12). The anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody trastuzumab and the anti-VEGFR2 antibody ramucirumab represent the totality of currently licensed targeted therapies available for patients with advanced gastric cancer (11-13). Hence, development of alternative treatment options is strongly encouraged.