Insulin-like growth factor pathway aberrations and gastric cancer; evaluation of prognostic significance and assessment of therapeutic potentials.

Gastric cancer is a major cause of treatment-related mortality and morbidity worldwide, it ranks as the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death in males and fifth most common cause of cancer-related death in women. The prognosis of advanced cases with gastric cancer looks poor with the majority dying within 1 year of diagnosis of metastatic disease. Thus, intensive search for new innovative treatments has been a major focus of current oncology research. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) pathway has been evaluated extensively in preclinical settings of gastric cancer. Initially, a number of studies have shown a potential role for aberrant tissue expression of IGFR-related markers in the process of gastric carcinogenesis, and a number of other studies have shown a clear association between IGFR expression and aggressive histopathological subtypes. However, clinical introduction of IGFR inhibitors into gastric cancer treatment has been delayed compared to other solid tumors. This review provides concise evaluation of prognostic significance of IGF pathway-related markers in gastric cancer with assessment of potential therapeutic strategies.