ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) is a useful therapeutic option. However, some patients respond poorly to it and can even show tumor progression. It is important to define factors that can predict response to NAT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study to define histopathological factors predicting response to NAT in gastric tubular carcinoma. This study has enrolled 80 patients receiving chemotherapy for locally advanced gastric carcinoma. RESULTS: 44.5% of the patients were men; mean age was 64.49 years. Only 5.7% of the patients showed a complete response to therapy, 10% had grade 1, 21.4% grade 2, and 62.9% grade 3 regression. On follow-up, 43.8% of the patients showed recurrence of disease (57.1% distant metastasis) and 33.8% eventually died of it. We found a statistically significant association between response and prognosis. We found a statistically significant association between regression and perineural, vascular, and lymph vessel invasion. Logistic regression model showed that only lymph vessel invasion had independent influence. Lymph vessel invasion not only indicated lack of response to therapy, but also higher incidence of lymph node involvement in the gastrectomy specimen. DISCUSSION: Our study indicates that the presence of vascular or perineural invasion in the endoscopic biopsies and high histopathological grade predict poor response to therapy. This seems peculiar, for undifferentiated tumors are supposed to have better response to therapy. CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that undifferentiated tumors respond worse to therapy. Furthermore, studies are necessary to define lack of response, to help avoid neoadjuvant therapy in unfavorable cases.
