A new study suggests that stomach cancer patients will live longer if they get chemotherapy before and after surgery.

British researchers found that chemo cut the risk of death by 25 percent compared to just surgery alone

It also improved the rate of survival and cut the risk of the cancer returning.

Currently the standard treatment for stomach cancer is surgery, were all or part of the stomach is removed. If caught early, chance of survival increases significantly.

Chemo cut the risk of death by a quarter compared to surgery alone, according to the study published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. It also shrank tumors and improved survival without a return of cancer.

Lead by Dr. David Cuningham of Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton and London, researchers examined 503 patients. Doctors gave the patients with operable stomach cancer chemotherapy both before and after surgery.

'Clinicians can have confidence in the solid evidence that peri-operative therapy improves the outcome for patients with respectable gastric cancer,' Cuningham told United Press International. He also said the trial was well-designed and well-executed and had enough patients to show that the results did not appear to occur by chance.

The findings appear in the July Issue of New England Journal of Medicine