Assessment of Systemic Inflammatory Response and Nutritional Markers in Patients With Trastuzumab-treated Unresectable Advanced Gastric Cancer

Correlation between mismatch repair and survival of patients with gastric cancer after 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy

BACKGROUND

Almost all adjuvant chemotherapy regimens for gastric cancer recommended by guidelines are fluorouracil (5-FU) based, and 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy plays an important role in reducing the recurrence of gastric cancer after surgery. However, the effect of mismatch repair (MMR) status on survival after 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with gastric cancer remains controversial.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We prospectively included patients with gastric cancer who underwent radical gastrectomy between March 14, 2017 and September 30, 2021. The included patients received 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy or surgery alone. The MMR status of patients was divided into MMR proficient (pMMR) and MMR defective (dMMR) according to four MMR proteins. Peripheral blood was collected for systemic inflammation analysis. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of MMR status on survival after 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with gastric cancer. We also analyzed the differences in systemic inflammation levels in different MMR status and their impact on survival.

RESULTS

A total of 479 patients were enrolled, with a median follow-up period of time was 36 months. In the surgery alone group, dMMR gastric cancer had better disease-free survival (DFS) (hazard ratio [HR] = 4.33, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.25-15.02, p = 0.02) than pMMR, and in the adjuvant chemotherapy group, there was no significant difference in DFS (HR = 1.16, 95% CI 0.65-2.07, p = 0.61) between dMMR and pMMR gastric cancer. The same results were seen for overall survival (OS). In addition, the result show that in the dMMR group, there was no difference in DFS (HR = 1.62, 95% CI 0.46-5.77, p = 0.45) between patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy and those receiving surgery alone. In the pMMR group, the DFS values (HR = 0.59, 95%CI 0.35-0.99, p = 0.04) of patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy were better than those of patients receiving surgery alone, and the same results were observed for OS. In addition, among pMMR patients, patients with a low platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) who received 5-FU adjuvant chemotherapy and those with a low neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) who received surgery alone had better DFS and OS.

CONCLUSION

To our knowledge, this is the first prospective study to specifically explore the correlation between MMR and survival of patients with gastric cancer after 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy. The results showed that gastric cancer patients with pMMR can benefit from 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy, but those with dMMR cannot. Among pMMR patients, lower PLR and SII values with surgery alone and lower NLRs in those receiving 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy were associated with higher DFS and OS.

Pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio predicts the benefit of gastric cancer patients with systemic therapy

Pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been reported to be associated with the prognosis of inoperable gastric cancer patients with systemic therapy. However, no consensus on the association has been reached. In this study, we mainly evaluated whether pretreatment NLR predicted the benefit of inoperable gastric cancer patients with systemic therapy, including chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy. PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched from inception up to September 16th, 2020. A total of 36 studies including 8614 patients were involved in the meta-analysis. Pooled data revealed that high pretreatment NLR was significantly associated with poor outcomes of OS (HR = 1.78, 95% CI = [1.59, 1.99]) and PFS (HR = 1.63, 95% CI = [1.39, 1.91]) in gastric cancer. Subgroup analyses stratified by country, study type, case load, analysis of HR, cutoff of pretreatment NLR, or treatment types arrived at the same conclusion. Pooled data based on different effect models and sensitivity analyses did not change the conclusion. Overall, high pretreatment NLR predicts the poor prognosis of inoperable gastric cancer patients with systemic therapy. Measurement of pretreatment NLR will assist clinicians with patient counseling and clinical treatment guiding accordingly.