Chemotherapy After Surgery Improves Gastric Cancer Survival

Clinical trial results show that treatment with chemotherapy after surgery improves survival for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Asian Scientist (Jul. 11, 2013) – Results from a five-year follow-up to a phase III clinical trial show that treatment with chemotherapy after surgery improves the chances of survival for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

The results, presented at the 15th ESMO (European Society For Medical Oncology) World Congress in Gastrointestinal Cancer, show that treatment with chemotherapy after surgery can reduce the risk of cancer related death by 34% over five years compared to surgery alone.

The findings were obtained from a five-year follow-up from the phase III CLASSIC trial, which added combination chemotherapy to a standard surgical procedure called D2 gastrectomy. The chemotherapy regimen studied in the trial is called XELOX, which is a combination of the drugs capecitabine and oxaliplatin.

CLASSIC was a multinational open-label randomised phase III trial performed in South Korea, China and Taiwan. Patients with stage II–IIIB gastric cancer who had undergone curative D2 gastrectomy were assigned to adjuvant XELOX for eight cycles or surgery alone.

“Surgery is the most important modality in gastric cancer treatment and in the past it was considered that gastric cancer could be cured by surgery alone, if the surgery was properly performed,” said Dr Sung Hoon Noh, a gastric surgeon who presented the data.

“However, there has been controversy over whether surgery is enough in advanced disease. The new CLASSIC data clearly shows that a XELOX regimen administered after surgery prolongs the lives of patients with gastric cancer compared to patients who had surgery alone.”

——

Source: ESMO; Photo: TipsTimes/Flickr.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

Asian Scientist Magazine is an award-winning science and technology magazine that highlights R&D news stories from Asia to a global audience. The magazine is published by Singapore-headquartered Wildtype Media Group.

Related Stories from Asian Scientist