Gastric cancer is still one of the major causes of cancer-related death worldwide [1]. In the last few years, many progresses have been made in the bio-molecular characterization [2, 3] and management of this tumour [4] with the hope of improving the outcome of affected patients in the near future.

In this special issue of Updates in Surgery dedicated to gastric cancer, we aimed to provide a comprehensive synopsis of the recent advances and current issues in the diagnosis and treatment of this complex disease.

We selected authors among the global leaders in this field, each of whom was asked to address his own topic of major interest. Reviews and original articles deal with minimally invasive techniques, application of ERAS protocols, advances in multimodal therapy, newly proposed concepts of surgery in metastatic disease and possible clinical application of recent molecular classifications of gastric cancer.

As Guest Editors, we deeply thank the Editors of the journal for giving us this relevant chance and we hope that the selected articles will be of interest to the readers of Updates in Surgery.