In previous studies there has not shown to be an increase in survival when adding chemotherapy after surgery for gastric cancer compared with surgery alone. Most U.S. patients that are diagnosed with cancer of the stomach or lower esophagus have locally advanced disease that is hard to cure.

The MAGIC trial represents a landmark study in gastric cancer, as it is the first trial to demonstrate a survival benefit for pre- and postoperative chemotherapy. Researchers studied 503 patients with cancer of the stomach, esphagogastric junction or lower esophagus. One arm of the trial received three preoperative and three postoperative cycles of chemotherapy, the other arm of the study had only surgery.

The trial concluded that the chemotherapy group had smaller resectable tumors with negative margins, fewer patients had advanced nodal disease and the five year survival rate increased by 13 percent. It was noted that this is a significant advance for the treatment of this disease.

Less tends to go wrong for the patient during morning surgery, according to an analysis by Duke University Medical Center researchers, who studied the records of 90,159 surgeries to determine when most surgery patients experienced unexpected adverse events related to their anesthesia. Of these, they found 2,693 cases where error or harm occurred. Patients undergoing surgery in the afternoon most often had more trouble with postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting.

There might be several factors in these time-related problems, including afternoon fatigue among health care providers caused by swings in the circadian rhythms that influence normal biological ups and downs over the course of a day, and hospital work schedules.