Survival Impact of Adjuvant Chemotherapy on Stage IB Gastric Cancer Patients After Radical Surgery

Radical surgery is the primary treatment for localized gastric cancer (GC), but the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage IB GC remains unclear. This study evaluates its impact on recurrence and survival post-gastrectomy.

We retrospectively analyzed 357 patients with pathological T1N1M0 or T2N0M0 GC who underwent radical gastrectomy (1994-2020). Clinicopathological data were collected, and propensity score matching (PSM) was used to minimize selection bias.

The chemotherapy group was younger (p = 0.007), had lower Charlson comorbidity index scores (p = 0.006), more partial gastrectomies (p = 0.048), and higher lymphovascular invasion rates (p = 0.023). No significant differences were observed in disease-free (p = 0.346) or cancer-specific survival (p = 0.358) between groups, even after PSM.

Adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve survival. Large-scale randomized trials are needed to clarify its role in stage IB GC.