Perioperative chemotherapy for resectable gastroesophageal cancer: a single-center experience. Eur J Surg Oncol. 2013;39:814-822. [PMID: 23755989 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejso.2013.05.003]

Comparison between upfront surgery and neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer (GC) is a major health concern worldwide. Surgical resection and chemotherapy is the mainstay treatment for gastric carcinoma, however, the optimal approach remains unclear and should be different in each individual. Chemotherapy can be administered both pre- and postoperatively, but a multidisciplinary approach is preferred when possible. This is particularly relevant for locally advanced GC (LAGC), as neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAT) could potentially lead to tumor downsizing thus allowing for a complete resection with curative intent. Even though the recent progress has been impressive, European and International guidelines are still controversial, thus attenuating the need for a more standardized approach in the management of locally advanced cancer.

AIM

To investigate the effects of NAT on the overall survival (OS), the disease-free survival (DFS), the morbidity and the mortality of patients with LAGC in comparison to upfront surgery (US).

METHODS

For this systematic review, a literature search was conducted between November and February 2023 in PubMed, Cochrane Library and clinicaltrials.gov for studies including patients with LAGC. Two independent reviewers conducted the research and extracted the data according to predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses was used to form the search strategy and the study protocol has been registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews.

RESULTS

Eighteen studies with 4839 patients with LAGC in total were included in our systematic review. Patients were separated into two groups; one receiving NAT before the gastrectomy (NAT group) and the other undergoing upfront surgery (US group). The OS ranged from 41.6% to 74.2% in the NAT group and from 30.9% to 74% in the US group. The DFS was also longer in the NAT group and reached up to 80% in certain patients. The complications related to the chemotherapy or the surgery ranged from 6.4% to 38.1% in the NAT group and from 5% to 40.5% in the US group. Even though in most of the studies the morbidity was lower in the NAT group, a general conclusion could not be drawn as it seems to depend on multiple factors. Finally, regarding the mortality, the reported rate was higher and up to 5.3% in the US group.

CONCLUSION

NAT could be beneficial for patients with LAGC as it leads to better OS and DFS than the US approach with the same or even lower complication rates. However, patients with different clinicopathological features respond differently to chemotherapy, therefore currently the treatment plan should be individualized in order to achieve optimal results.

AutoBRB: An automated belief rule base model for pathologic complete response prediction in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is one of the most severe malignant lesions. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has proven to be an effective method in gastric cancer treatment, and patients who achieved the pathologic complete response (pCR) after NAC can improve survival time further. To accurately predict pCR in an interpretable way, a new automated belief rule base (AutoBRB) model is developed with careful data analysis in this paper. In AutoBRB, to determine the referential values that are important for the rule building, both the information gain ratio and expert knowledge are used, while a table-based strategy is designed to initialize the belief degrees for each rule. Then, the differential evolution (DE) algorithm is employed and modified for model optimization to improve the model's performance. Finally, with the help of training data, an adaptive searching strategy is designed to set the confidence threshold for the final prediction. The experimental results demonstrate that AutoBRB shows a more reasonable performance on the prediction of pCR.

Tumor response evaluation after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced gastric adenocarcinoma: a prospective, multi-center cohort study

BACKGROUND

To verify the prognostic value of the pathologic and radiological tumor response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced gastric adenocarcinoma.

METHODS

A total of 67 patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (clinical ≥ T2 or nodal disease and without evidence of distant metastases) underwent perioperative chemotherapy (ECF or ECX regimen) from December 2009 through June 2015 in two surgical units. Histopathological and radiological response to chemotherapy were evaluated by using tumor regression grade (TRG) (Becker's criteria) and volume change assessed by CT.

RESULTS

Fifty-one (86%) patients completed all chemotherapy scheduled cycles successfully and surgery was curative (R0) in 64 (97%) subjects. The histopathological analysis showed 19 (29%) specimens with TRG1 (less than 10% of vital tumor left) and 25 (37%) patients had partial or complete response (CR) assessed by CT scan. Median disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were 25.70 months (range, 14.52-36.80 months) and 36.60 months (range, 24.3-52.9 months), respectively. The median follow up was 27 months (range, 5.00-68.00 months). Radiological response and TRG were found to be a prognostic factor for OS and DFS, while tumor histology was not significantly related to survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Both radiological response and TRG have been shown as promising survival markers in patients treated with perioperative chemotherapy for locally advanced gastric cancer. Other predictive markers of response to chemotherapy are strongly required.

Perioperative chemotherapy for resectable gastric cancer - what is the evidence?

The UK MAGIC trial published in 2006 was the first RCT to identify improved long-term survival rates using preoperative chemotherapy for resectable gastric or gastroesophageal cancer. Overnight, the treatment regimen impacted European guidelines. However, the majority of patients underwent limited lymph node dissection, and analyses of the rates of curative resection, downsizing and downstaging were not by intention to treat, rightfully raising concerns about their validity. For the subset of true gastric cancers, meta-analyses may even question the claims of improved long-term survival rates by present-day regimens. A rhetorical question can be posed as to whether downstaging and improved survival rates by preoperative (radio)-chemotherapy for cancers of the distal esophagus or gastric cardia, has confounded our conclusions on the (lack of) effect of present-day regimens of perioperative chemotherapy for true gastric cancers, let alone in a situation with proper lymph node dissection. At present, a plea can be made to move one step back and revert to an RCT with a surgery alone arm. Inclusion criteria and analyses of future RCTs must stratify on tumor location and the Lauren type and embrace the newly developed scheme of sub-classification of gastric cancers based on extensive molecular profiling as reported in the seminal Cancer Genome Atlas Study.

Efficacy of docetaxel combined with oxaliplatin and fluorouracil against stage III/IV gastric cancer

AIM: To investigate the clinical efficacy and toxic effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy using docetaxel combined with oxaliplatin and fluorouracil for treating stage III/IV gastric cancer.

METHODS: A total of 53 stage III/IV gastric cancer patients were enrolled into the study and treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Two of the cases were excluded. The program was as follows: 75 mg/m² docetaxel and 85 mg/m² oxaliplatin on day 1 and 1500 mg/m² fluorouracil on days 1 to 3 for three weeks.

RESULTS: The tumour changes, postoperative remission rate, changes in the symptoms and adverse reactions were observed. The overall clinical efficacy (complete remission + partial remission) of the neoadjuvant chemotherapy was 62.7%. R0 radical resection was performed on 60.8% of the patients, with a remission rate (pathological complete response + pathological subtotal response + pathological partial response) of 74.2%. The Karnofksy score improved in 42 cases. The toxicity reactions mostly included myelosuppression, followed by gastrointestinal mucosal lesions, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

CONCLUSION: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy consisting of docetaxel combined with oxaliplatin and fluorouracil is effective for stage III/IV gastric cancer. However, the treatment is associated with a high incidence of bone marrow suppression, which should be managed clinically.

Impact of perioperative chemotherapy on oncological outcomes after gastric cancer surgery

BACKGROUND

Perioperative chemotherapy has become standard care for resectable gastric cancer. However, available evidence is based on a limited number of trials, and the outcomes in routine clinical practice and in unselected patients are scarcely reported.

METHODS

The study included a consecutive series of patients with resectable gastric cancer treated between 2001 and 2011 in Central Norway. Before 2007, patients with resectable gastric cancer did not receive perioperative chemotherapy. Since 2007, medically fit patients with resectable gastric cancer and aged 75 years or less have been offered this. Response rates were evaluated by CT, and tolerability was assessed by the frequency of hospital admission, need for dose reduction or treatment discontinuation. The two time intervals were compared on an intention-to-treat basis for patients aged no more than 75 years for any impact on resection rates, surgical morbidity, postoperative mortality and long-term survival.

RESULTS

About two-thirds (259) of the 419 patients registered were aged 75 years or less at diagnosis. Ninety-five of 136 patients in the later interval were eligible for chemotherapy, of whom 90 actually received the specified regimen, and 78 (87 per cent) were able to complete the preoperative course. Only 40 (44 per cent) completed all scheduled preoperative and postoperative cycles. Thirty-eight (43 per cent) of 89 evaluable patients showed a definite response on CT. Chemotherapy had no impact on postoperative morbidity or mortality. The 5-year survival rate on an intention-to-treat basis was 40·7 (95 per cent c.i. 30·7 to 50·7) per cent in the first interval, compared with 41·7 (31·5 to 51·9) per cent after the introduction of perioperative chemotherapy (P = 0·765). After adjustment for other risk factors, based on comparisons of the two time intervals, there were no differences in oncological outcomes with the use of perioperative chemotherapy.

CONCLUSION

Perioperative chemotherapy was completed in less than half of the patients with resectable gastric cancer. An observed tumour response to chemotherapy did not translate into any long-term survival benefit compared with surgery alone.

The effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on resectability of locally-advanced gastric adenocarcinoma: a clinical trial

INTRODUCTION

Surgical resection is the only curative treatment for gastric cancer. However, the overall prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma is poor and advanced disease may even make surgical treatment impossible. It has been theoretically proposed that administration of chemotherapy before surgical resection may down-stage the disease state and facilitate resectability especially in locally-advanced tumors.

AIM

We wanted to assess the effect of administration of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on tumor resectability in patients with locally-advances gastric adenocarcinoma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

During a randomized-controlled trial, we divided 60 patients with locally-advanced gastric adenocarcinoma into two groups of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery (case) versus surgery alone (control). Because of patient dropouts, we analyzed the results for 22 and 29 patients in case and control groups respectively. The study period was March 21, 2011 to March 20, 2014. A non-randomized set of 23 patients were also added to the control group (Multi-center analysis). The analysis was repeated for non-randomized patients (22 case patients versus 52 control patients).

RESULTS

The mean age of patients in case and control groups was 58.3 ± 9.1 and 59.7 ± 8.7 years of age respectively (p > 0.05). Male to female ratio was 15/7 and 41/11 in case and control groups respectively (p > 0.05). In Randomized patients, 19 patients (86.4%) were resectable in case group; while 16 patients (55.2%) were resectable in control group (p < 0.05). Multicenter analysis also revealed resectability in 19 patients (86.4%) and 31 patients (59.6%) of case and control groups respectively (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

We conclude that neoadjuvant chemotherapy could increase tumor resectability rate in patients with locally-advanced gastric adenocarcinoma. However, further studies are necessary to confirm the effect of this modality on patients' overall survival.