Sick to my stomach.

You know who’s having only a slightly less bad week than Harvey Weinstein? The US Men’s National Soccer Team and gastric cancer trialists. The most recent bummer on the gastric cancer front comes from the CALGB 80101 Alliance trial. We all know that the MacDonald trial showed improved survival with adjuvant radiation therapy sandwiched and paired with 5FU. And we know that the MAGIC trial also showed improved survival with perioperative epirubicin/cisplatin/5FU (ECF) chemotherapy. CALGB 80181 (or MacDonald’s MAGIC as we call it) wondered what would happen if the MacDonald radiation regimen got a MAGIC sandwich with ECF triplet therapy in place of 5FU alone. Sadly, there was no benefit with a MAGIC sandwich over 5FU monotherapy in addition to radiation, a failure which held true across all subgroups. Instead of walking all the way back to the drawing board again, we’re about ready to order a Surface Pro and chill right where we are.