Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation Treatment for Resectable Esophago-Gastric Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Asian Patients With Locally Advanced Gastric Cancer

Presently, surgery is the only treatment approach for gastric cancer and improving the prognosis of locally advanced gastric cancer is one of the key factors in promoting gastric cancer survival benefit. The MAGIC study was the first to demonstrate the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in European countries. In recent years, several clinical trials have provided evidence for the use of NAC in Asian patients with locally advanced gastric cancer. However, clinical practice guidelines vary between Asian and non-Asian populations. Optimal NAC regimens, proper target populations, and predictors of NAC outcomes in Asian patients are still under investigation. Herein, we summarized the current progress in the administration of NAC in Asian patients with gastric cancer.

Clinical Comparison of Endoscopic Ultrasonography and CT in Preoperative TN Staging of Esophagogastric Junction Cancer

In recent years, the incidence of esophagogastric junction cancer has increased year by year. It is a special type of gastric cancer, with 80% of patients being clinically in the middle and late stages. The traditional treatment methods are extremely ineffective, and the accuracy of preoperative staging is not good enough. At present, the medical treatment for esophagogastric junction cancer mainly adopts surgery and postoperative adjuvant therapy. The current mainstream clinical diagnostic methods of esophagogastric junction cancer before concurrent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy are X-ray, CT examination, and gastroscopic diagnosis. However, these clinical diagnostic methods have many limitations. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) can accurately locate malignant tumors in the digestive tract, surrounding microstructures. It can diagnose lymphatic metastasis so as to provide a clear imaging basis for neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. This method can also effectively improve the prognosis of the esophagus and stomach according to the characteristics of the patient. In this experiment, we conducted a controlled trial on patients with stage III esophagogastric junction cancer, divided into an experimental group (neoadjuvant chemotherapy + surgery) and a control group (conventional surgery). The preoperative EUS staging in the control group, the preoperative EUS staging in the neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy group, and the postoperative pathological staging were compared. The experiment showed that in the control group, the preoperative and postoperative accuracy of EUS was 89.2%, while the preoperative and postoperative accuracy of CT examination was only 62.5%. In the experimental group, the preoperative and postoperative accuracies of EUS and CT were 79.6% and 56.7%, respectively. EUS has both specificity and accuracy due to CT examination. Through studying EUS technology in the staging and diagnosis of esophagogastric junction cancer, the therapeutic effect of esophagogastric junction cancer can be improved. The prognosis of esophagogastric junction cancer can also be improved.

Survival benefits from neoadjuvant treatment in gastric cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Surgery is the main treatment option for patients with local gastric cancer. However, surgery alone is usually not sufficient for stomach cancer patients, and combined therapies are recommended for these patients. In recent studies, some preoperative treatments have shown benefits. However, the treatment selection is still uncertain because previous studies failed to obtain a statistically significant difference between preoperative chemotherapy and preoperative chemoradiotherapy. Therefore, we plan to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the benefits among these preoperative treatments.

METHODS/DESIGN

This review includes randomized controlled trials with or without blinding as well as published studies, high-quality unpublished studies, full articles and meeting abstracts with an English context if sufficient results were provided for analysis. Data sources include the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, MEDLINE, major relevant international conferences and manual screening of references. Patients with a diagnosis of resectable primary gastric or EGJ adenocarcinoma (stage II or higher) who underwent surgery alone or preoperative treatment followed by surgery and who were pathologically confirmed as proposed by the AJCC 2017 guidelines without age, sex, race, subtypes of adenocarcinoma and molecular pathology limitations will be included. The following three interventions will be included: surgery alone, neoadjuvant chemistry followed by surgery and neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery. All-cause mortality, overall survival (OS, the time interval from diagnosis to death) and/or progression-free survival (PFS, the time interval from diagnosis to disease progression or death from any cause) will be defined as major results of concern. The clinical and pathological response rate (according to RECIST and tumour regression score), R0 resection rate, quality of life and grade 3 or above adverse events (according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, NCI-CTCAE) will be defined as the secondary outcomes.

DISCUSSION

The aim of this systematic review is to compare the benefits of different preoperative treatments for patients with locoregional stomach cancer. This systematic review will improve the understanding of the relative efficacy of these treatment options by providing the latest evidence on the efficacy of various treatment options in the management of gastric cancer patients and may guide clinical practice.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

PROSPERO CRD4202123718.

Preoperative versus postoperative chemo-radiotherapy for locally advanced gastric cancer: a multicenter propensity score-matched analysis

Background

Peri-operative chemo-radiotherapyplayed important rolein locally advanced gastric cancer. Whether preoperative strategy can improve the long-term prognosis compared with postoperative treatment is unclear. The study purpose to compare oncologic outcomes in locally advanced gastric cancer patients treated with preoperative chemo-radiotherapy (pre-CRT) and postoperative chemo-radiotherapy (post-CRT).

Methods

From January 2009 to April 2019, 222 patients from 2 centers with stage T3/4 and/or N positive gastric cancer who received pre-CRT and post-CRT were included. After propensity score matching (PSM), comparisons of local regional control (LC), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were performed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test between pre- and post-CRT groups.

Results

The median follow-up period was 30 months. 120 matched cases were generated for analysis. Three-year LC, DMFS, DFS and OS for pre- vs. post-CRT groups were 93.8% vs. 97.2% (p = 0.244), 78.7% vs. 65.7% (p = 0.017), 74.9% vs. 65.3% (p = 0.042) and 74.4% vs. 61.2% (p = 0.055), respectively. Pre-CRT were significantly associated with DFS in uni- and multi-variate analysis.

Conclusion

Preoperative CRT showed advantages of oncologic outcome compared with postoperative CRT.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrial.gov NCT01291407, NCT03427684 and NCT04062058, date of registration: Feb 8, 2011.

Pretreatment Contrast-Enhanced Computed Tomography Radiomics for Prediction of Pathological Regression Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Locally Advanced Gastric Cancer: A Preliminary Multicenter Study

Background

Sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced gastric cancer patients varies; however, an effective predictive marker is currently lacking. We aimed to propose and validate a practical treatment efficacy prediction method based on contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) radiomics.

Method

Data of l24 locally advanced gastric carcinoma patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy were acquired retrospectively between December 2012 and August 2020 from three different cancer centers. In total, 1216 radiomics features were initially extracted from each lesion’s pretreatment portal venous phase computed tomography image. Subsequently, a radiomics predictive model was constructed using machine learning software. Clinicopathological data and radiological parameters of the enrolled patients were collected and analyzed retrospectively. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to screen for independent predictive indices. Finally, we developed an integrated model combining clinicopathological predictive parameters and radiomics features.

Result

In the training set, 10 (14.9%) patients achieved a good response (GR) after preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy (n = 77), whereas in the testing set, seven (17.5%) patients achieved a GR (n = 47). The radiomics predictive model showed competitive prediction efficacy in both the training and independent external validation sets. The areas under the curve (AUC) values were 0.827 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.609–1.000) and 0.854 (95% CI: 0.610–1.000), respectively. Similarly, when only the single hospital data were included as an independent external validation set (testing set 2), AUC values of the models were 0.827 (95% CI: 0.650–0.952) and 0.889 (95% CI: 0.663–1.000) in the training set and testing set 2, respectively.

Conclusion

Our study is the first to discover that CECT radiomics could provide powerful and consistent predictions of therapeutic sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy among gastric cancer patients across different hospitals.

Down-staging depth score could be a survival predictor for locally advanced gastric cancer patients after preoperative chemoradiotherapy

Objective

The predictive effect of preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is low and difficult in guiding individualized treatment. We examined a surrogate endpoint for long-term outcomes in locally advanced gastric cancer patients after preoperative CRT.

Methods

From April 2012 to April 2019, 95 patients with locally advanced gastric cancer who received preoperative concurrent CRT and who were enrolled in three prospective studies were included. All patients were stage T_3/4N₊. Local control, distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Clinicopathological factors related to long-term prognosis were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analyses. The down-staging depth score (DDS), which is a novel method of evaluating CRT response, was used to predict long-term outcomes.

Results

The median follow-up period for survivors was 30 months. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve predicted by the DDS was 0.728, which was better than the pathological complete response (pCR), histological response and ypN0. Decision curve analysis further affirmed that DDS had the largest net benefit. The DDS cut-off value was 4. pCR and ypN0 were associated with OS (P=0.026 and 0.049). Surgery and DDS are correlated with DMFS, DFS and OS (surgery: P=0.001, <0.001 and <0.001, respectively; and DDS: P=0.009, 0.013 and 0.032, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that DDS was an independent prognostic factor of DFS (P=0.021).

Conclusions

DDS is a simple, short-term indicator that was a better surrogate endpoint than pCR, histological response and ypN0 for DFS.

Impact of Lymph Nodes Examined on Survival in ypN0 Gastric Cancer Patients: a Population-Based Study

BACKGROUND

Our aim was to evaluate the prognostic value of the number of lymph nodes examined (eLNs) on survival in ypN0 gastric cancer (GC) patients, and further to define the optimal number of lymph nodes needed to be examined during radical gastrectomy of ypN0 GC patients.

METHODS

A total of 1127 ypN0 GC patients during 2004-2015 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database were included. The number of eLNs cutoff points that determined the greatest actuarial survival difference was calculated by the X-tile program. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the impact of eLNs on overall survival (OS).

RESULTS

The optimal number of eLNs thresholds was determined to be 15 for ypN0 GC patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that ypN0 GC patients with ≥ 16 eLNs had a significantly better OS than those with ≤ 15 eLNs (5-year OS; 60.8 vs 45.4%, P < 0.001). Similarly, multivariate Cox analysis revealed that ypN0 GC patients with ≥ 16 eLNs experienced a significantly lower hazard of death than those with ≤ 15 eLNs (adjusted HR; 0.73, 95% CI, 0.60-0.90, P = 0.003).

CONCLUSIONS

The number of eLNs was an independent predictor of survival for ypN0 GC patients. A minimum of 15 eLNs is recommended as the cutoff point for the evaluation of the quality of postoperative or prognostic stratification in ypN0 GC patients.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy improves survival in locally advanced adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a propensity score matching analysis

Background

To analyze whether neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) could improve the survival for patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nCT). Both neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone and chemoradiotherapy before surgery have been shown to improve overall long-term survival for patients with adenocarcinoma in the esophagus or esophagogastric junction compared to surgery alone. It remains controversial whether nCRT is superior to nCT.

Methods

170 Patients with locally advanced (cT3-4NxM0) Siewert II and III adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction (AEG) were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy consisting of capecitabine plus oxaliplatin with or without concurrent radiotherapy in the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) was used and delivered in 5 daily fractions of 1.8 Gy per week for 5 weeks (total dose of PTV: 45 Gy). 120 Patients were included in the propensity score matching (PSM) analysis to compare the effects of nCRT with nCT on survival.

Results

With a median follow-up of 41.2 months for patients alive after propensity score matching analysis, the 1- and 3-year OS were 84.8%, 55.0% in nCRT group and 78.3%, 38.3% in nCT group (P = 0.040; HR = 1.65, 95% CI 1.02–2.69). The 1- and 3-year PFS were 84.9%, 49.2% in nCRT group and 68.3%, 29.0% in nCT group (P = 0.010; HR = 1.80, 95% CI 1.14–2.85). The pathological complete response (pCR) was 17.0% in nCRT group and 1.9% in nCT group (P = 0.030). No significant difference was observed in postoperative complications between the two groups.

Conclusion

The nCRT confers a better survival with improved R0 resection rate and pCR rate compared with nCT for the patients with locally advanced AEG.

Lack of National Adoption of Evidence-Based Treatment for Resectable Gastric Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

Level 1 evidence for multimodal treatment of resectable gastric adenocarcinoma from the Intergroup 0116 (2001) and MAGIC (2006) trials demonstrated survival benefit of adjuvant chemoradiation (CRT) and perioperative chemotherapy, respectively. We evaluated the adoption of evidence-based treatment in the post-MAGIC era and its impact on survival.

METHODS

A total of 7058 patients with resectable gastric adenocarcinoma undergoing definitive surgical resection between 2004 and 2015 were analyzed using the National Cancer Database.

RESULTS

Over the study period, the proportion of patients receiving adjuvant CRT decreased from 19.1% to 9.1%, while perioperative chemotherapy increased from 1.9% to 28.6%. Utilization of perioperative chemotherapy surpassed adjuvant CRT in 2011. Evidence-based treatment (either perioperative chemotherapy or adjuvant CRT) had better overall survival (OS) than other treatments for clinical stage II-III patients (p < 0.05). On multivariate analysis of the whole study period, evidence-based treatments were associated with better OS (HR 0.67 [0.60-0.74], p < 0.05). Only 360/1262 (28.5%) patients in the perioperative chemotherapy group completed postoperative therapy, which was associated with improved OS (p < 0.05). For clinical stage III patients (n = 2402), only 806 (33.6%) received evidence-based treatment, while 487 (22.2%) underwent surgery alone. On multivariate analysis of these patients between 2010 and 2015, both perioperative chemotherapy (HR 0.49 [0.35-0.68]) and adjuvant CRT (HR 0.31 [0.21-0.44]) were associated with better OS than surgery alone (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Since the INT-0116 and MAGIC trials, utilization of evidence-based treatments for resectable gastric adenocarcinoma has increased, with perioperative chemotherapy surpassing adjuvant CRT as the preferred practice. However, overall utilization of these regimens remains quite low nationally despite association with improved OS.

Transanal versus nontransanal surgery for the treatment of primary rectal gastrointestinal stromal tumors: a 10-year experience in a high-volume center

Background

Rectal gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is a rare digestive disease that has a distinct malignant tendency compared to that of gastric-derived GIST. At present, there is still no standard, and the surgical approach to rectal GIST is controversial.

Methods

The clinicopathological data and prognosis of rectal GIST patients admitted to the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from 1998.01.01 to 2018.12.31 were collected retrospectively. All cases were divided into either the transanal (TA) group or the nontransanal (NTA) group.

Results

A total of 537 GIST cases were treated in 10 years, including 82 rectal GIST cases (64 cases underwent surgical resection, including 29 cases in the TA group and 35 cases in the NTA group). Preoperative neoadjuvant therapy (P=0.003), postoperative adjuvant therapy (P=0.017), operative time (P=0.013), blood loss (P=0.038), anus-preserver (P=0.048), 30-day complication rate (P=0.000), time to flatus (P=0.036), hospital stays (P=0.011), distance from the anus (P=0.047), tumor size (P=0.002), mitotic count (P=0.035) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) criteria (P=0.000) were significantly different between these two groups (all P<0.05). The median follow-up time was 41 (range, 1–122) months. Twelve patients had recurrence and metastasis, and 4 patients died. The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were 74.4% and 91.2%, respectively, in the whole group. There were no statistically significant differences between the TA group and the NTA group at 5-year DFS (81.3% vs. 79.0%, P=0.243) and OS (88.7% vs. 93.3%, P=0.308).

Conclusions

In the treatment of rectal GIST, TA resection has a minimally invasive effect, less postoperative complications, high anal sphincter preservation rate, and R0 resection rate and a better prognosis. How to improve the proportion of neoadjuvant therapy and choose the appropriate cases for TA surgery is still a challenge.