[Radiation therapy for advanced gastric cancer]

Thirteen patients with advanced gastric cancer treated by palliative radiotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. The radiation sites were abdominal cavities in 8 cases, superficial masses in 5 and lung metastasis in one. The purposes were to diminish mass size in 5 cases, to relieve pain in 3 and to reduce stenosis in 6. The total doses were more than 40 Gy in 10 patients. In 2 cases, the intracavitary irradiation was performed using 192Ir. In one case, radiation had to be stopped at the dose of 22.5 Gy because of poor general condition. Partial response was obtained in 6 of 12 cases (RP, 50%). The sites of responders were superficial lesions in 4 and hepatic hilar mass in 2, which were given intracavitary as well as external radiation. Pain relief was achieved in all patients suffering from it. One of 3 cases with esophageal stenosis showed marked improvement in swallowing. Two patients showed a decrease in the levels of tumor markers. Five patients had side effects of more than grade 2. Two of them were grade 3, one thrombocytopenia and one diarrhea. The median survival time of all cases was 9 months, and 5 patients could shift to home care. These results suggest that palliative radiotherapy could be one of the most useful locoregional therapies for advanced gastric cancer, in the aspect of improvement of patient's QOL.