Research & Education
Roswell Park
Stomach Cancer Medical Therapy
This treatment approach uses medicines (drugs or other substances) to kill cancer cells, or to slow or prevent their growth. Medical therapies may be used before or after surgery. These are called systemic therapies because the drugs travel throughout the body via the blood to attack cancer cells. We use the latest anticancer agents available. Your personalized treatment plan may include chemotherapy and/or targeted therapy.
- Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy kills cancer cells by interrupting and preventing rapidly-dividing cells (like cancer cells) from multiplying. Drugs used in chemotherapy may be taken orally, injected or infused into the bloodstream by IV.
- Targeted therapy: Each tumor is genetically different from another, and these differences can translate to one patient responding to treatment while another does not. Targeted therapies target a specific molecular characteristic of the cancer cell to block its growth and spread. Because targeted therapies aim for the characteristic found only on the cancer cells, they often spare more normal cells, presenting fewer side effects.
The Roswell Park Advantage
We offer a type of testing called molecular profiling, which determines whether your cancer has a unique characteristic, such as an overexpression of the protein HER2 Neu. If so, treatment with monoclonal antibodies will be considered for you. The antibodies, made in the laboratory from a type of immune system cell, can identify substances on the cancer cell or elsewhere that help the cancer cell to grow. The antibodies attach to these substances, and kill the cancer cells, block their growth, or prevent their spread. Trastuzumab is a monoclonal antibody that targets HER2 Neu on cancer cells.
