Background: Platinum/fluoropyrimidine regimens are the backbone of first-line therapy for advanced gastric cancer (AGC). The optimal duration of first-line therapy is still unknown and its continuation until disease progression represents the standard. However this strategy is often associated with cumulative toxicity and rapid development of drug resistance. Moreover, only 40% of AGC pts are eligible for second-line treatment. This study aims at assessing whether switch maintenance to ramucirumab plus paclitaxel will extend the progression-free survival (PFS) of subjects with HER-2 negative AGC who have not progressed after a first-line with a platinum/fluoropyrimidine regimen. The hypothesis is that the early administration of an active, non-cross resistant regimen may delay disease progression and, consequently, improve pts’ quality of life. This strategy may also rescue all those subjects that become ineligible for a second-line therapy due to the rapid clinical deterioration. Methods: This is a randomized, open-label, multicenter, phase III trial. Eligibility criteria are: unresectable/metastatic HER-2 negative AGC or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer; ECOG PS 0-1; measurable and/or evaluable disease by RECIST v1.1; no progression after 3 months of therapy with either FOLFOX4, mFOLFOX6 or XELOX . The primary endpoint is to compare PFS of pts in ARM A (continuation of the same first-line therapy with oxaliplatin/fluoropyrimidine) versus ARM B (switch maintenance to ramucirumab and placlitaxel). Secondary endpoints are: overall survival, time-to-treatment failure, overall response rate, duration of response, percentage of pts receiving a second-line therapy per treatment arm, safety and quality of life. Exploratory analyses to identify primary resistance and prognosis biomarkers are planned, including Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) on archival tumor tissues. The ARMANI study is sponsored by the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori and it is ongoing at 29 Italian centers with a planned population of 280 pts. Clinical trial information: NCT02934464