Evaluation of pharmacological therapies used in Costa Rica in patients with metastatic gastric cancer: a retrospective study

Gastric cancer is the fifth most diagnosed neoplasm worldwide (1). In Costa Rica, gastric cancer is among the most prevalent neoplasms and one of the leading causes of cancer death in men and women (1-6). Even though surgery remains as the best curative option for gastric cancer, only 30% to 60% of the patients undergo surgical resection given the high proportion of cases with tumors in advanced or metastatic stages at diagnosis. In these cases, pharmacological therapy becomes the most suitable, or even the only, treatment option (7,8). Despite the survival benefits that have been observed with combination therapies, many of the patients do not respond to existing treatment regimens. Given the scarcity of therapeutic opportunities and the lack of response to the existing ones, the prognosis of advanced gastric cancer remains very poor (7,9,10)