Advanced gastric carcinoma successfully treated with TS-1 as neoadjuvant chemotherapy

We report a patient with advanced gastric carcinoma successfully treated with the novel oral fluoropyrimidine anticancer drug TS-1 as neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The patient was a 76-year-old man who had gastric cancer clinically diagnosed as N2T4, invading the pancreas, the duodenum, and the transverse colon. He was treated as an outpatient with TS-1, 120 mg, administered orally every day for 28 days, followed by 14 days' rest, as one course. Two courses resulted in a marked reduction of the tumor without severe toxicity. Subsequently, the patient underwent curative surgery consisting of distal gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection. No surgical complications were observed. On microscopic examination, a few tumor cells were detected in the ulcer scar of the resected stomach and in the regional lymph nodes. Our report is the first to demonstrate the advantages of TS-1 as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for the treatment of advanced gastric carcinoma.