Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with radical gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer.Methods The retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted.The clinicopathological data of 73 patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with radical gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University between June 2004 and December 2009 were collected.Neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens included XELOX and FOLFOX.Patients received radical gastrectomy within 2 weeks after the completion of the last cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and then continued to undergo postoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy.Observation indicators:(1) adverse event of neoadjuvant chemotherapy;(2) surgical and postoperative situations;(3) follow-up situations.Follow-up using outpatient examination and telephone interview was performed to detect survival of patients up to December 2014.Measurement data with skewed distribution were described as M (range).Overall survival time was from the beginning of treatment to death or end of follow-up (patients with loss to follow-up).Progression-free survival time was from the beginning of treatment to tumor progression,recurrence and metastasis or death.The survival curve was drawn by the Kaplan-Meier method.Results (1) Adverse event of neoadjuvant chemotherapy:of 73 patients,38 received XELOX regimens and 35 received FOLFOX regimens,with a median cycle of 3 (range,1-7 cycles).There were 55 adverse events during neoadjuvant chemotherapy,including 47 with grade 1-2 and 8 with grade 3-4.(2) Surgical and postoperative situations:all the 73 patients underwent successful D2 radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer,including 40 receiving total gastrectomy,31 receiving distal gastrectomy,1 receiving total gastrectomy with transverse colon resection and 1 receiving distal gastrectomy with cholecystectomy.Of 73 patients,10 with postoperative complications were improved by conservative treatment,including 3 with pleural effusion,2 with peritoneal effusion,2 with anastomotic bleeding,2 with cholecystitis and 1 with lympha fistula.No patient received reoperations or died within 30 days postoperatively.Pathological TNM staging:22 patients were detected in stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ,45 in stage Ⅲ,4 in stage Ⅳ and 2 in stage T0N1M0.Three patients (in stage T0N0M0) had complete remission.Forty-three patients underwent postoperative chemotherapy.(3) Followup:all the 73 patients were followed up for 8-125 months,with a median time of 51 months.The median survival time,5-year overall survival rate and 5-year disease-free survival rate of 73 patients were 52 months,41.1％ and 34.2％,respectively.Conclusion XELOX and FOLFOX regimens of neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with radical gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer are safe and effective.

Purpose: Previous studies have demonstrated the usefulness of the controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score in nutritional assessment and survival prediction of patients with various malignancies. However, its value in advanced gastric cancer (GC) treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and curative gastrectomy remains unclear. Materials and Methods: The CONUT score at different time points (pretreatment, preoperative, and postoperative) of 272 patients with advanced GC were retrospectively calculated from August 2004 to October 2015. The χ2 test or Mann-Whitney U test was used to estimate the relationships between the CONUT score and clinical characteristics as well as short-term outcomes, while the Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate long-term outcomes. Survival curves were estimated by using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. Results: The proportion of moderate or severe malnutrition among all patients was not significantly changed from pretreatment (13.5%) to pre-operation (11.7%) but increased dramatically postoperatively (47.5%). The pretreatment CONUT-high score (≥4) was significantly associated with older age (P=0.010), deeper tumor invasion (P=0.025), and lower pathological complete response rate (CONUT-high vs. CONUT-low: 1.2% vs. 6.6%, P=0.107). Pretreatment CONUT-high score patients had worse progression-free survival (P=0.032) and overall survival (OS) (P=0.026). Adjusted for pathologic node status, the pretreatment CONUT-high score was strongly associated with worse OS in pathologic nodepositive patients (P=0.039). Conclusions The pretreatment CONUT score might be a straightforward index for immunenutritional status assessment, while being a reliable prognostic indicator in patients with advanced GC receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy and curative gastrectomy. Moreover, lower pretreatment CONUT scores might indicate better chemotherapy responses.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR) in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively enrolled gastric cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and curative surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University from 2004 to 2015 as the study cohort. Patients with the same inclusion criteria treated in 2016–2017 were enrolled as the validation cohort. Kaplan-Meier curves were assessed using the log-rank test to analyze the differences in overall survival (OS).Multivariate survival analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazards model.The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of ypN and LNR categories for predicting the actual 3-year OS were compared. Results: A total of 265 patients were included in the proposal cohort. The median number of retrieved lymph nodes (rLNs) was 32. The number of positive lymph nodes (pLNs) increased as rLN increased (P=0.037), but the LNR remained relatively constant (P=0.462). The LNR was categorized into 4 groups according to the prognosis: ypNr0, node-negative with rLN>25; ypNr1, node-negative with rLN≤25 or 00.3. In the validation cohort of 43 enrolled patients, there was a clear distinction in OS that significantly (P<0.001) varied depending on the LNR values and LNR was the only independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (P<0.001). Conclusions LNR was an independent prognostic factor for survival of patients with gastric cancer after preoperative chemotherapy and might be an alternative predictor for ypN stage.