Faculty Opinions recommendation of Five-year outcomes of a randomized phase III trial comparing adjuvant chemotherapy with S-1 versus surgery alone in stage II or III gastric cancer.

95 Background: To evaluate the risk of recurrence in patients with pathologically staged Ib, according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 2002 staging system, gastric cancer (GC) in the phase III adjuvant chemoradiotherapy in stomach tumors (ARTIST) trial. Methods: Among 458 GC patients enrolled in ARTIST, 99 had stage Ib (T2N0 or T1N1) disease. Patients were randomly assigned to receive adjuvant chemoradiotherapy with capecitabine plus cisplatin (XP, n = 50)) or chemoradiotherapy (XPRT, n = 49). Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate disease-free survival (DFS). Cox proportional hazard models were employed to determine associations between the addition of radiotherapy to XP and DFS after adjustment for patient and disease characteristics. Additionally, analyses were performed according to the AJCC 2010 staging system. Results: With 7 years of follow-up, there were 18 recurrences. The 5-year DFS rates were 88% and 84% in XP and XPRT patients, respectively (P = 0.537). When we reviewed the pathologic stages of the patients according to the AJCC 2010 system, stage migration from Ib to II occurred in 71% of the patients: 98% of the T2N0 patients were reclassified as T3N0, and 42% of the T1N1 patients were reclassified as T1N2. The patients classified as stage Ib according to the AJCC 2002 system and reclassified as stage II exhibited worse, although statistically insignificant, prognosis than the patients who remained in stage Ib (5-year DFS 83% vs. 93%, P = 0.183, HR 1.178, 95% CI 0.420-3.311, P = 0.158). When we compared 5-year DFS in 70 stage II (AJCC 2010 system) patients, the addition of radiotherapy to XP chemotherapy resulted, although again statistically insignificant (P = 0.234), in worse outcome in XPRT arm (77%) than in XPRT arm (88%). Conclusions: This subgroup analysis confirms the clinical relevance of the AJCC 2010 staging system in GC. The role of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II GC warrants further investigation.

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Final results of a phase III clinical trial of adjuvant chemotherapy with the modified fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and mitomycin regimen in resectable gastric cancer.

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.1995.13.11.2757 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 2757-2763 ◽

Cited By ~ 76

Author(s):

M Lise ◽

D Nitti ◽

A Marchet ◽

T Sahmoud ◽

M Buyse ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gastric Cancer ◽

Clinical Trial ◽

Overall Survival ◽

Adjuvant Chemotherapy ◽

Adjuvant Treatment ◽

Stage Ii ◽

Phase Iii ◽

Stage Iii ◽

Time To Progression ◽

Disease Free

PURPOSE In a randomized clinical trial (European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer [EORTC] no. 40813) on adjuvant chemotherapy in gastric cancer, results obtained after administration of the FAM2 regimen (fluorouracil [5-FU], doxorubicin, and mitomycin) were compared with results obtained after surgery alone to assess the effect of this regimen on overall survival, time to progression, and disease-free interval. PATIENTS AND METHODS Three hundred fourteen patients who had undergone curative resection for stage II or stage III (International Union Against Cancer [UICC] 1978) gastric adenocarcinoma were randomized to receive chemotherapy (treatment arm) or no further treatment (control arm). The chemotherapy schedule was repeated every 43 days for seven cycles. The log-rank test and the Cox model were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Of 314 patients, 159 comprised the control group and 155 the FAM2 group. Nineteen FAM2 patients never received chemotherapy. The median number of cycles was five. Of the patients started on adjuvant treatment, severe hematologic and nonhematologic toxicity (grades 3 or 4, World Health Organization [WHO] scale) occurred, respectively, in 6% to 9% and in 1% to 29% of cases. The overall 5-year survival rate was 70% for stage II and 32% for stage III patients. No statistically significant difference was found between overall survival of the two treatment arms (P = .295). However, time to progression was significantly delayed in the FAM2 arm (P = .020) and disease-free survival showed borderline significance (P = .068). CONCLUSION FAM2, in view of its high toxicity, cannot be advocated as standard adjuvant treatment for gastric cancer. Large-scale clinical trials using more active, less toxic regimens are required to demonstrate whether adjuvant chemotherapy provides any real benefit.

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