Impact of time from completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy to gastrectomy on histopathological response of gastric cancer cases
Keywords:
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, Gastric cancer, Pathological response, Survival, Time to surgery.Abstract
Background: Gastric cancer surgery (gastrectomy) is usually recommended approximately 1 to 1.5 months after completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, but the optimal timing of gastrectomy is not clearly defined. So, the influence of time from completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy to gastrectomy on the pathological response of patients with gastric cancer was evaluated in the present study.
Methods and materials: This retrospective study evaluated the clinical data of 217 cases of gastric cancer locally advanced patients who underwent curative surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy during 2013-2020. The influence of time to surgery, defined as >6, 5–6 and 4 weeks, on the pathological response of patients with gastric cancer was investigated. The data were entered into the SPSS version 24 and statistically evaluated.
Results: Sixty-six cases of 217 patients (30.6%) had gastrectomy within four weeks of the last dose of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, 98 cases (45.0%) within 5-6 weeks and 53 cases (24.5% ) after 6 weeks. The median age was 54 [interquartile range (IQR): 47.0-63.0] years and the median time to surgery was 34.0 (IQR: 26.0-42.0) days. In addition, when comparing the pathological status, it was found that the three groups were not significantly different based on histopathological and surgical characteristics, except for the pathological stage (P = 0.025).
Conclusion: Time to surgery did not influence on histopathological response of patients with gastric cancer.
