Neoadjuvant versus adjuvant radiotherapy for resectable locally advanced gastric cancer: A SEER population analysis

There is a lack of evidence on whether resectable locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) patients could benefit from neoadjuvant or adjuvant radiotherapy (RT).

Patients with surgically diagnosed LAGC from 2004 to 2015 were retrieved from the SEER database. Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test were used to evaluate survival analysis between neoadjuvant and adjuvant RT. Univariate Cox regression was used to evaluate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI).

A total of 4790 LAGC patients who treated with surgery and RT were identified, including 3187 patients with intestinal subtype and 1603 patients with diffuse subtype. For patients with both intestinal and diffuse subtypes, median cancer-specific survival (mCSS) was better with adjuvant RT or neoadjuvant RT. Moreover, patients benefited more from adjuvant RT than neoadjuvant RT (intestinal subtype: mCSS 49 vs. 36 months, P < 0.001; diffuse subtype: mCSS 32 vs. 26 months, P = 0.050). Further analyses showed that patients with intestinal subtype and T_1-2N⁺, T₃N^-, T₃N⁺ subgroups, as well as patients with diffuse subtype and T_1-2N⁺ and T₃N⁺ subgroups benefited more from adjuvant RT than those with neoadjuvant RT. Patients in the diffuse subtype and T₃N^- subgroups also tended benifit from adjuvant RT and survive. There was no difference in survival between the T₄N^- and T₄N ⁺ subgroups of the two subtypes. After propensity score matching, subgroup analysis identified an improved survival in favor of adjuvant RT in the age ≥65 years and female subgroups in diffuse subtypes and T₄N⁺ patients.

For patients with resectable LAGC in the T_1-2N⁺, T₃N^-, T₃N⁺ clinical subgroups, adjuvant RT yields more benefits than neoadjuvant RT or no RT, which is worthy of prospective clinical trial.