Despite a declining incidence in many developed countries, gastric cancer remains the second most common cause of cancer deaths, and it is responsible for about 12% of all cancer-related deaths worldwide. More than two-thirds of patients diagnosed with gastric cancer will have unresectable disease and despite the fact that surgical pathological resection can be curative for many patients, most of them develop recurrent disease. Evidence supports the use of palliative chemotherapy with the aims of improving symptoms, quality of life, and possibly prolonging survival. Combination chemotherapy regimens have been developed in the hopes of improving response rate and overall survival (OS). Unfortunately, the benefits of combination chemotherapy have been modest. In general, regimens containing fluoropyrimidine and platinum agents are widely accepted as potential standard therapies. Although a large proportion of patients with metastatic or recurrent gastric cancer may initially respond to chemotherapy, they ultimately progress. In addition, many patients have primary refractory disease. The median survival at progression after first-line chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer is about 2.5 months.