International and Japanese Gastric Cancer Associations Docetaxel and cisplatin in patients with advanced gastric cancer:

Cisplatin is frequently used in Japan for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer [1–3]. Docetaxel has recently shown impressive activity against this disease, with a single-agent response rate (RR) of between 17 % and 24 % and a median survival of 6.2 to 7.9 months [4–7]. In Europe and the United States, combination regimens with docetaxel in the treatment of gastric cancer have also produced promising results [8–10]. In Japan, a phase I study used cisplatin and docetaxel in combina-tion, with the aim of determining the maximum toler-ated doses (MTDs) of the two agents, the clinical toxicities of their administration, and preliminary evi-dence of activity [11]. This was followed by a larger phase II trial, the results of which are reported here, after a brief account of two independent phase I