Comparison between 7th and 8th edition of AJCC TNM staging system for gastric cancer: old problems and new perspectives

Gastric cancer (GC) represents one of the most common causes of cancer mortality worldwide (1). Although considerable progress in diagnostic and therapeutic tools can improve the outcome of GC patients, surgery remains the only curative therapy. Actually, surgical resection with lymphadenectomy is considered the only curative therapeutic approach for resectable GC, while preoperative and adjuvant chemotherapies, as well as chemoradiation, can improve the outcomes aiming at the reduction of recurrence and extension of survival.