Molecular Pathways In Gastric Cancer

Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers (fifth) and the third cause of cancer death in theworldwide. Mechanism of pathogenesis of gastric cancer is still unclear and rely on multiple factorsincludes environmental and genetics factors. The important environmental factor of gastric canceris infection with helicobacter pylori which classified as class one of carcinogens. There are severalgenes and pathways that play role in gastric cancers and dysregulated during gastriccarcinogenesis. Pathways which involved in normal development like Wnt/ b-catenin signaling,Hedgehog signaling, Hippo pathway, Notch signaling and oncogenic pathways such as cell cycle, NFkBand EGFR have been found that dysregulated in gastric cancer. Epithelial mesenchymaltransition (EMT) cancer, which is important during embryogenesis and tumorgenesis, have role ininitiation, invasion, metastasis and progression of gastric cancer. Matrix metalloproteinase haveimportant role in carcinogenesis and the levels of MMPs increased in many cancers as well asgastric cancer. Although surgery is the only treatment of gastric cancer but the understanding ofbiological processes of this pathways help to development new drugs for gastric cancer.Trastuzumab which is anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody, is effective against HER2-positive gastriccancer. There are several agents that investigates for treatment of gastric cancer in clinical trial.The molecular markers is useful to detect gastric cancer in early stages and take appropriate actionfor treatment and prevents from progression of cancer.