Microsatellite instability in Gastric Cancer: Between lights and shadows

Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) represents an important contributor to the global burden of cancer, being one of the most common and deadly malignancies worldwide. According to TCGA and ACRG classifications, the microsatellite instable (MSI) group represents a significant subset of GCs and is currently in the limelight of many researches due to its favorable survival outcome in resectable stages compared to microsatellite stable tumors. MSI GCs hypermutated phenotype triggers immunosurveillance, making this molecular subgroup a promising candidate for immune checkpoint inhibitors treatment. Conversely, conflicting outcomes have been reported in chemotherapy settings. Due to the clinical relevance of these observations, in this review we report and discuss the molecular, pathological, prognostic, and predictive features of MSI gastric tumors.

Keywords: Clinical trials; Gastric cancer; Immunocheckpoint inhibitors; Microsatellite Instability; Molecular subtypes.