Prognostic markers in oesophageal and gastric cancer review. Are they ready for clinical practice?

Oesophageal and gastric cancer outcomes remain poor despite the introduction of new treatments in the past decade. Most patients subjected to chemotherapy or surgery do not, in the long term, benefit from treatment but suffer side-effects. Although next-generation sequencing has accelerated the identification of various genomic aberrations, most have yet to be applied to routine clinical practice. Here, we review published data from systemic reviews and meta-analyses from the past 8 years reporting prognostic markers and why these have not gained traction in clinical practice and how we can improve on this.