Hi fourdollars,Given there is an unknown outcome to the...

Hi fourdollars,

Given there is an unknown outcome to the treatment, it would be unethical to not undertake the surgery which will be curative. There's no guarantee any of the trial treatments will work so if they don't proceed with surgery, it's a case of waiting to see if the tumour grows. Gastric tumours grow and spread very quick so it's highly likely/almost certain the cancer will spread beyond the primary site and from there, it's an almost certain (90+%) death sentence. If they are removing the tumour then they can view it in a pathology which will give the best indication as to what occurred post treatment.

The other consideration which people may not be aware of is that primary gastric cancer can't be viewed with diagnostic imaging such as CT scans. The only way to view primary gastric tumours in the body is via a gastroscopy. Gastroscopies allow gastroenterologists to view the inside lining of the oesophagus/stomach however if the tumour is no longer visible in the inner lining, they don't allow them to assess if there are remnant cells inside the lining nor on the outer lining. So it's a bit like Schrödinger's cat; the tumour cells might all be dead but they may be alive. There's just no way to tell. So, the options are, cut out the tumour site or simply wait and see what happens, which brings us back to my first paragraph about ethics.