The prognosis and clinicopathological characteristics of 70 gastric cancer patients with elevated serum AFP / 中华肿瘤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#This study aimed to review the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of advanced gastric cancer patients with elevated serum Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP).@*Methods@#From August 2006 to May 2016, 70patients with advanced gastric cancer were enrolled retrospectively. All these patients had pathologically confirmed gastric adenocarcinoma, had a serum AFP level of more than 20 ng/ml, and received at least first-line treatment. The clinicopathological data and follow-up data were collected for analysis.@*Results@#Liver metastasis was more common in patients with AFP≥1 000 ng/ml, compared with AFP<1 000 ng/ml patients (78.6% vs 57.1%, P=0.064). In patients whose AFP level decreased ≥50% after first-line chemotherapy, the disease control rate and overall survival were both better than those in patients with AFP decreased <50%(96.3% vs 56.7%, P=0.001; 17.2 m vs 8.8 m P=0.007). The overall survival of all these 70 patients ranged from 0.5-50.0 months. 31 patients received chemotherapy only, and 39 patients received combined therapy modality. The overall survival of these two groups were similar(11.0 m and 15.6 m, respectively, P=0.070).@*Conclusions@#Serum AFP-elevated gastric cancer is a special subtype of gastric cancer. It′s a heterogeneous cancer with different clinical outcomes. The extent of decrease of serum AFP level during follow-up may be a sensitive prognostic and predictive biomarker. Liver metastasis were more common in these patients, and combined treatment may improve survival.