Biomarkers for gastric cancer: molecular classification revisited

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common lethal cancer worldwide. In recent years, several new targeted therapeutic agents for the treatment of metastatic GC have been developed. These include drugs that block human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) or epidermal growth factor receptor, ramucirumab monoclonal antibody that binds to a receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor, and other targeted agents such as sorafenib and apatinib, and immunotherapies. In this short review, we provide a summary of clinical and preclinical biomarkers (HER2, mesenchymal-epithelial transition [MET], fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 [FGFR2], ring finger protein 43 [RNF43], microsatellite instability and mismatch repair, Epstein-Barr virus, programmed cell death ligand-1, and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) for treatment strategies and will address the molecular classification of GC revisited with an aim to select the best-precision treatment strategies for GC patients.