Lee KW, et al. - In this phase III study of patients with metastatic or recurrent gastric cancer (MRGC) who had experienced disease progression following first-line chemotherapy, researchers compared the efficacy and safety of paclitaxel vs irinotecan. Treatment regimen comprised either paclitaxel (70 mg/m²; days 1, 8, 15, every 4 weeks) or irinotecan (150 mg/m² every other week). Paclitaxel vs irinotecan resulted in numerically longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), although not statistically significant. Both irinotecan and paclitaxel were proved to be valid second-line treatment options in MRGC. In the paclitaxel group, the most common ≥ grade 3 toxicity was neutropenia (11.5%), followed by peripheral neuropathy (7.7%). In the irinotecan group, neutropenia (34.5%) followed by nausea, vomiting, and anemia (8.6%, respectively) were the ≥ grade 3 toxicities.