Preoperative treatment with radiochemotherapy for locally advanced gastroesophageal junction cancer and unresectable locally advanced gastric cancer

Authors

  • Ivica Ratosa Institute of Oncology Ljubljana
  • Irena Oblak Institute of Oncology Ljubljana
  • Franc Anderluh Institute of Oncology Ljubljana
  • Vaneja Velenik Institute of Oncology Ljubljana
  • Jasna But-Hadzic Institute of Oncology Ljubljana
  • Ajra Secerov Ermenc Institute of Oncology Ljubljana
  • Ana Jeromen Institute of Oncology Ljubljana

Abstract

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To analyze the results of preoperative radiochemotherapy in patients with unresectable gastric or locoregionally advanced gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer treated at a single institution.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 1/2004 and 6/2012, 90 patients with unresectable gastric or locoregionally advanced GEJ cancer were treated with preoperative radiochemotherapy at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana. Planned treatment schedule consisted of induction chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin, followed by concomitant radiochemotherapy four weeks later. Three-dimensional conformal external beam radiotherapy was delivered by dual energy (6 and 15 MV) linear accelerator in 25 daily fractions of 1.8 Gy in 5 weeks with two additional cycles of chemotherapy repeated every 28 days. Surgery was performed 4–6 weeks after completing  radiochemotherapy. Following the surgery, multidisciplinary advisory team reassessed patients for the need of adjuvant chemotherapy. The primary endpoints were histopathological R0 resection rate and pathological response rate. The secondary endpoints were toxicity of preoperative radiochemotherapy and survival.

RESULTS: Treatment with preoperative radiochemotherapy was completed according to the protocol in 93.3% of patients. Twenty patients (22.2%) did not undergo the surgery because of the disease progression, serious comorbidity, poor performance status or still unresectable tumor. In 13 patients (14.4%) only exploration was performed because the tumor was assessed as unresectable or diffuse peritoneal carcinomatosis was established. Fifty-seven patients (63.4%) underwent surgery with the aim of complete removal of the tumor. Radical resection was achieved in 50 (55.6%) patients and the remaining seven (7.8%) patients underwent non-radical surgery (R1 in five and R2 in two patients). In this group of patients (n=57), pathological complete response of tumor was achieved in five patients (5.6% of all treated patients or 8.8% of all operated patients). Down-staging was recorded in 49 patients (86%), in one patient (1,8%) the stage after radiochemotherapy  was unchanged while in seven patients (12.3%) the pathological stage was higher than clinical, mainly due to higher pN stage.

No death was recorded during preoperative  radiochemotherapy. Most grade 3 and 4 toxicities were due to vomiting, nausea and bone marrow suppression (granulocytopenia). Twenty-six (45.6%) patients died due to GEJ or gastric carcinoma, one died because of septic shock following the surgery and a reason for two deaths was unknown. Twenty-eight patients (49.1%) were disease free at the time of analysis, while twenty-nine patients (50.9%) developed the recurrence, mostly as distant metastases. At two years, locoregional control, disease-free survival, disease-specific survival and overall survival were 82.9%, 43.9%, 56.9% and 53.9%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Preoperative radiochemotherapy is feasible and has acceptable toxicity. Majority of patients achieved down-staging, allowing greater proportion of radical resections (R0), which are essential for patients’ cure.

Author Biographies

Ivica Ratosa, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana

MD, Department of Radiotherapy

Irena Oblak, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana

Assist. prof., MD, PhD

Department of Radiotherapy

Franc Anderluh, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana

MD, MSc; Department of Radiotherapy

Vaneja Velenik, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana

MD, PhD; Department of Radiotherapy

Jasna But-Hadzic, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana

MD, Department of Radiotherapy

Ajra Secerov Ermenc, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana

MD, Department of Radiotherapy

Ana Jeromen, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana

MD, Department of Radiotherapy

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Published

2015-04-24

How to Cite

Ratosa, I., Oblak, I., Anderluh, F., Velenik, V., But-Hadzic, J., Secerov Ermenc, A., & Jeromen, A. (2015). Preoperative treatment with radiochemotherapy for locally advanced gastroesophageal junction cancer and unresectable locally advanced gastric cancer. Radiology and Oncology, 49(2). Retrieved from https://www.radioloncol.com/index.php/ro/article/view/2156

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Section

Clinical oncology