The significance of time interval between perioperative SOX/XELOX chemotherapy and clinical decision model in gastric cancer.

Introduction: To investigate the influences of time interval between multimodality therapies on survival for locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) patients, 627 patients were included in a retrospective study, and 350 who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) based on SOX (S-1 plus Oxaliplatin)/XELOX (Capecitabine plus Oxaliplatin) treatment, radical surgery, and adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) from 2005.01 to 2018.06 were eligible for analyses. Methods: Three factors were used to assess influences, including time interval from NACT accomplishment to AC initiation (PECTI), time to surgery after NACT accomplishment (TTS), and time to adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery (TAC). Results: Concerning PECTIs, 99 (28.29%) experienced it within 9 weeks, 188 (53.71%) within 9-13 weeks, 63 (18.00%) over 13 weeks. Patients' 5-year overall survival (OS) significantly decreased as trichotomous PECTI increased (78.6% vs 66.7% vs 55.7%, P = .02). Analogously, there was a significant decrease for dichotomous TTS (within vs over 5 weeks) in OS (P = .03) and progression free survival (PFS) (P = .01) but not for dichotomous TAC (within vs over 6 weeks) in OS and PFS (P = .40). Through multivariate Cox analyses, patients with PECTI over 13 weeks had significantly worse OS (P = .03) and PFS (P = .02). Furthermore, extended TTS had significantly worse OS and PFS but insignificantly worse OS and PFS than extended TAC. Therefore, gastric patients receiving perioperative SOX/XELOX chemotherapy and surgery with extended PECTI over 9 weeks or TTS over 5 weeks would have a negative correlation with PFS and OS, and worse when PECTI over 13 weeks. Nomograms (including PECTI, ypT, ypN, Area Under Curve (AUC) = 0.81) could predict patient survival probability and guide intervention with net benefit. Discussion: In control of PECTI, TTS could be extended appropriately, and shortened TAC might make a remedy, and delayed TAC might be allowed when TTS was shortened.

Comparison of tumor regression grading systems for locally advanced gastric adenocarcinoma after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Current tumor regression grade (TRG) evaluations are based on various systems which brings confusion for oncologists and pathologists when interpreting results. The recent six-tier system (JGCA2017-TRG) recommended by the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association (JGCA) is worth investigating, as four-tier TRG systems are favored in various parts of the world. AIM: To compare the predictive accuracies of five published TRG systems. METHODS: Data were retrospectively collected from patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by D2 Lymphadenectomy between January 2005 and January 2014 at our institution. Outcomes were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), which were evaluated separately using the following TRG systems: JGCA2017, JGCA, Becker, AJCC/CAP, and Mandard. RESULTS: All five published TRG systems were independent predictors for OS and DFS. Concordance indices of the JGCA2017, JGCA, Becker, AJCC/CAP-TRG, and Mandard systems were 0.651/0.648 0.652/0.649, 0.693/0.695, 0.688/0.685, and 0.674/0.675 for OS and DFS, respectively. The four-tier Becker system showed the highest c-index, which was significantly greater than that of the six-tier JGCA2017 and five-tier JGCA systems (P < 0.05 in OS and DFS). When residual tumor percentages were reset as: "no residual tumor", < 10%, < 100%, and "no response", the rearranged cutoff values achieved a maximum c-index with 0.728 for OS and 0.737 for DFS, which was superior to the other five systems. CONCLUSION: The newly introduced six-tier JGCA-TRG system cannot increase prognostic stratification. The four-tier Becker system is more suitable for LAGC patients. A population-based study is warranted to define the optimal criterion for TRG in LAGC patients.

Short- and Long-Term Outcomes after Laparoscopic Versus Open Gastrectomy for Elderly Gastric Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: With the rapid aging of global population, the number of elderly patients with gastric cancer is increasing. This study aimed to evaluate short- and long-term outcomes after laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) versus open gastrectomy (OG) in elderly gastric cancer patients. Materials and Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library databases from January 1994 to May 2019. Surgical safety, postoperative complications, number of harvested lymph nodes, and overall survival rate were included and analyzed. The qualities of the included studies were evaluated by Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. The evidence of outcomes was evaluated using the GRADE approach. The Review Manager® 5.3 (Cochrane, London, UK) and Stata® 14.0 (StataCorp., College Station, Texas) were used to analyze the outcomes. Results: Thirteen studies containing 4768 elderly patients with gastric cancer were included in this meta-analysis. LG was more favorable than OG in terms of overall postoperative morbidity (odds ratio [OR]: 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.44 to 0.70; P < .00001), the postoperative stay (standardized mean difference [SMD]: -0.56; 95% CI: -0.76 to (-0.37); P < .00001), and the number of harvested lymph nodes (SMD: 0.19; 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.29; P = .0003). No significant difference was found in anastomotic leakage rate (OR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.59 to 1.12; P = .21), mental disease (OR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.44 to 1.44; P = .44), or overall survival rate (P = .62) between two groups. However, in the subgroup with a cutoff age of 80 years, the anastomotic leakage rate was higher in LG (OR: 10.27; 95% CI: 1.31 to 80.35; P = .03). Conclusions: LG was more favorable than OG in the elderly patients <80 years old with gastric cancer.

Four-Point Computed Tomography Scores for Evaluation of Occult Peritoneal Metastasis in Patients with Gastric Cancer: A Region-to-Region Comparison with Staging Laparoscopy.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative diagnosis of peritoneal metastasis with gastric cancer remains challenging. This study explored the abnormal computed tomography (CT) signs of occult peritoneal metastasis (OPM) and evaluated it by region-to-region comparison using staging laparoscopy, from which a 4-point CT score system was developed. METHODS: Patients with advanced gastric cancer (stage cT ≥ 2M0) diagnosed by CT were enrolled in the study. Occult peritoneal metastasis detected during staging laparoscopy was compared with preoperative CT to investigate the presence of abnormal signs by a region-to-region comparison. A 4-point CT score system was developed to define the radiologic characteristics. Subsequently, the diagnostic efficacy of the CT score system was prospectively verified. RESULTS: In this study, 57 OPM regions were detected by staging laparoscopy in 33 of the 385 enrolled patients. The greater omentum was the most frequent site of OPM (38.60%, 22/57), which usually exhibited a smudge-like ground-glass opacity (S-GGO) (90.91%, 20/22) with a mean CT score of 2.14. The parietal and perihepatic peritoneum was the second most common site (22.81%, 13/57). A 4-point CT score system was developed based on the results. A cutoff CT score of 2 or higher was associated with a false-negative rate of 2% (2/99). This CT score system had a sensitivity of 87.5% and a specificity of 76.4% for an OPM-positive diagnosis (area under the curve, 0.848). The agreement between two radiologists on the assigned final score was 76.2% (kappa, 0.5). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with OPM mostly exhibited S-GGO on CT, which should be interpreted cautiously. The 4-point CT score system may improve the pretreatment evaluation of occult peritoneal metastasis, and staging laparoscopy might not be necessary for patients with a score lower than 2.

Overview of methodological quality of systematic reviews about gastric cancer risk and protective factors.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: A comprehensive overall review of gastric cancer (GC) risk and protective factors is a high priority, so we conducted the present study. METHODS: Systematic searches in common medical electronic databases along with reference tracking were conducted to include all kinds of systematic reviews (SRs) about GC risk and protective factors. Two authors independently selected studies, extracted data, and evaluated the methodological qualities and the quality of evidence using R-AMSTAR and GRADE approaches. RESULTS: Beta- carotene below 20 mg/day, fruit, vegetables, non-fermented soy-foods, whole-grain, and dairy product were GC protective factors, while beta-carotene 20 mg/day or above, pickled vegetables, fermented soy-foods, processed meat 30 g/d or above, or salty foods, exposure to alcohol or smoking, occupational exposure to Pb, overweight and obesity, helicobacter pylori infection were GC risk factors. So we suggested screening and treating H. pylori infection, limiting the amount of food containing risk factors (processed meat consumption, beta-carotene, pickled vegetables, fermented soy-foods, salty foods, alcohol), stopping smoking, avoiding excessive weight gain, avoidance of Pb, and increasing the quantity of food containing protective components (fresh fruit and vegetables, non-fermented soy-foods, whole-grain, dairy products). CONCLUSIONS: The conclusions and recommendations of our study were limited by including SRs with poor methodological bases and low quality of evidence, so that more research applying checklists about assessing the methodological qualities and reporting are needed for the future.