Page 199 - Read Online

Watanabe. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2018;4:48 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2018.60 Metastasis and Treatment

Editorial Open Access

Introduction to the special issue on reviews of
gastric cancer metastasis and treatment

Masayuki Watanabe

Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, the Cancer Institute Hospital of Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo
135-8550, Japan.
Correspondence to: Dr. Masayuki Watanabe, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, the Cancer Institute Hospital of
Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo 135-8550, Japan. E-mail: masayuki.watanabe@jfcr.or.jp
How to cite this article: Watanabe M. Introduction to the special issue on reviews of gastric cancer metastasis and treatment. J
Cancer Metastasis Treat 2018;4:48. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2018.60

Received: 27 Aug 2018 Accepted: 27 Aug 2018 Published: 17 Sep 2018

Science Editor: Masayuki Watanabe Copy Editor: Yuan-Li Wang Production Editor: Zhong-Yu Guo

It is a great honor for me to introduce the special issue entitled reviews of Gastric Cancer Metastasis and
Treatment. I’ve been focusing on 6 topics including tumor microenvironment (TME), biomarker research,
regional variation in gastric cancer treatment, diagnosis and treatment for peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC),
surgical treatment for advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, and novel treatment modalities. This special
issue includes 18 review articles concerning these topics.

TME has been proven to be deeply implicated in tumor progression and metastasis in gastric cancer.
[1]
Sawayama et al. gave a comprehensive overview of the functions of each component of TME and re-
viewed the clinical impact of the alteration of TME. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are known to be the main
[2]
reason for resistance to anticancer agents as well as for the development of distant metastasis. Uchihara et al.
reviewed the impact of the TME on gastric CSCs.

[3]
Biomarkers play an increasingly important role in the clinical management of cancer patients. Nakamura et al.
reviewed recent progress in technology for specific enrichment and detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs)
that contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer. Liquid biopsy using CTCs and cell-free nu-
cleic acids are considered as a tool that enables individualized or precision medicine. MicroRNAs (miRNAs)
[4]
are short noncoding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression. Komatsu et al. reviewed the
recent biological and clinical research on the circulating miRNAs of gastric cancer and discussed the future
perspectives.

[5]
There are regional differences in recommended treatment for gastric cancer. Kamiya et al. , Karolinska

© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

www.jcmtjournal.com