Up to date there is no worldwide accepted standard chemotherapy for the 1st-line treatment of advanced or metastatic gastric cancer.A combination of epirubicin, cisplatin and 5-FU (ECF) is the best examined combination and widely used. Recent studies (Thuss-Patience et al, J. Clin. Oncol. 2005) could show that a combination of docetaxel and 5-FU might be similarly effective as ECF. 5-FU and docetaxel +/- cisplatin combinations are investigated by many groups and may be a future reference treatment. Many data suggest that 5-FU infusion can be replaced by oral capecitabine with equal efficacy.