MODERN APPROACHES TO COMPREHENSIVE TREATMENT OF LOCALLY ADVANCED GASTRIC CANCER: A CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE

Locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) is one of the most challenging malignancies in terms of treatment and patient outcomes. As a stage III cancer, LAGC is defined by tumor invasion into surrounding tissues and lymph nodes, but without distant metastasis. Gastric cancer remains the fifth most common cancer globally and is responsible for over 700,000 deaths each year, making it the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide (Bray et al., 2018).