Introduction: With advances in multimodal therapy, survival rates in gastric cancer have significantly improved over the last two decades. Neoadjuvant therapy increases the likelihood of achieving negative margins and may even lead to pathologic complete response (pCR). However, the impact of pCR on survival in gastric cancer has been poorly described. We analyzed the rate and predictors of pCR in patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy as well as impact of pCR on survival.
Methods: We conducted a National Cancer Database (NCDB) analysis (2004-2016) of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgical resection.
Results: The pCR rate was 2.2%. Following adjustment, only neoadjuvant chemoradiation, non-signet histology, and tumor grade remained as significant factors predicting pCR. pCR was a statistically significant predictor of survival.
Conclusion: In this NCDB study, pCR was a predictor of survival. Though chemoradiation rather than chemotherapy alone was a predictor of pCR, it was not a predictor of survival. Further studies are needed to elucidate the role of radiation in the neoadjuvant setting and to discern the impact of pCR on survival.
Keywords: esophagus/foregut; surgical oncology.