EDITORIAL: Stomach cancer treatment, a changing view

Stomach cancer is considered the most common cancer of 20th century worldwide. with an incidence (asr) of 19.7 in males and 10.0 in females , stomach cancer is the most common cancer in men and the second most common cancer after breast carcinoma in women in iran, or at least in the greater tehran population, according to the tehran population-based cancer registry statistics of 1998-2001 (1). this common cancer is usually diagnosed in advanced stages, and is thus often considered an incurable disease requiring only palliative treatment. but recent advances in oncology have changed this view towards the cancer of stomach. while surgery remains the primary treatment of localized gastric carcinoma, modem techniques of surgery and specially adjuvant and neoadjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy have significantly increased the survival and cure rates (2) .