INTRODUCTIONThe majority of patients with gastric cancer relapse after definitive surgery and 5-year survival after surgery is very poor. The Intergroup 0116 study showed a modest survival benefit for postoperative bolus 5-fluorouracil-based chemoradiation with a high rate of toxicity. We hypothesised that treatment outcome could be further improved with feasible toxicity using a combination of bolus 5-fluorouracil, continuous 5-fluorouracil, and cisplatin followed by chemoradiation after 3 months of chemotherapy.

MATERIALS AND METHODSThirty-six patients with stages Ib through IV adenocarcinoma of the stomach or gastrooesophageal junction who had undergone gastric resection and negative margins were assigned to postoperative chemoradiation. The treatment consisted of 6 cycles of continuous 5-fluorouracil (600 mg/m2) for 24 hours, push 5-fluorouracil (400 mg/m2) and leucoverin (LCV) (200 mg/m2) on day 1 to 2 every 2 weeks, cisplatin (60 mg/m2) every 4 weeks followed by combined modality therapy using 45 Gy at 1.8 Gy per day concomitant with weekly bolus 5-fluorouracil (600 mg/m2) and LCV (50 mg).

RESULTSThe median age was 59 years (range, 29 to 75) and 25 patients were male. Thirty-five per cent had proximal tumour, T3 or T4 were diagnosed in 92% of the patients and lymph nodes metastases were confirmed in 83%. Grade 3 or 4 neutropaenia was documented in 25%, and gastrointestinal toxicity in 16%. There was no toxic death, but 1 patient had long-term complications. The median disease-free survival was 37.4 months and the overall survival was 40.3 months.

CONCLUSIONSPostoperative chemoradiation with combination of bolus 5-fluorouracil, continuous 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin is a feasible and well-tolerated approach. Larger clinical trials should be conducted to further evaluate the toxicity and the efficacy of this regimen.