FOLFOX versus EOX as a neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen for patients with advanced gastric cancer

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the preferred treatment of advanced gastric cancer. However, the choice of an optimal regimen remains controversial. The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of preoperative chemotherapy with EOX and FOLFOX in Chinese patients with advanced gastric cancer. A total of 87 and 26 patients underwent FOLFOX and EOX regimens, respectively, for advanced gastric cancer between July 2004 and September 2012. Clinicopathological characteristics, pathological T stage, N stage and pathological response to tumour regression were retrospectively compared between the two groups. Following neoadjuvant chemotherapy, a higher number of patients manifested deeper invasive cancer in the FOLFOX group than those in the EOX group (P=0.047). In addition, a higher number of patients also exhibited metastatic lymph nodes in the FOLFOX group (67.8%) than in the EOX group (57.7%) (P=0.000). In the FOLFOX and EOX groups, 4 (4.6%) and 3 (11.5%) cases of complete regression were observed, respectively. A higher number of patients (38.5%) also exhibited tumour regression grades of 3 and 4 in the EOX group than in the FOLFOX group (19.5%) (P=0.047). Results of the present study suggest that the EOX regimen may be more effective than the FOLFOX regimen as preoperative chemotherapy for Chinese patients with advanced gastric cancer. The EOX regimen may be suitable for younger patients subjected to individual neoadjuvant chemotherapy.