A retrospective multicenter study: Clinicopathological factors affecting recurrence-free survival in operable gastric cancer patients.

Abstract

185 Background:Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers in Asian countries, particularly. However, according to the American Cancer Society, 27,600 new gastric cancer cases and 11,010 deaths due to gastric cancer will be observed in the US in 2020. The rates of 5-year overall survival (OS) are 69.5% and 32% in the localized and regional diseases. Despite surgery and adjuvant treatment, gastric cancer’s recurrence rate is still not reasonable. In this multicenter study, we aimed to identify the clinicopathological factors that affect gastric cancer recurrence. Methods: Clinical and pathological data of the patients performed surgery between the 2009-2018 in the two university hospitals in Turkey was collected retrospectively. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) was estimated using Kaplan-Meier and categorical variables were compared using a log-rank test. After identifying clinicopathological factors affecting RFS, a multivariate analysis was performed using Cox regression analysis. All statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 27 (IBM Corp. Released 2020. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27 Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). Results: Three hundred fifty-four patients were included in this study. Two out of three of all patients were male and the median age at diagnosis was 56 years old (Interquartile Range (IQR):48-64). The median follow-up was 25 months (IQR:15-50). The median RFS was 53.2 months (95% Confidence Interval (CI) could not calculated). 5-year survival rate was 64% and the median overall survival (OS) was 136 months (95% CI: 98-173). According to results of multivariate analysis, there was an increased risk for recurrence in patients with preoperative hypoalbuminemia (albumin < 3.5 gr/dl) [Hazard Ratio (HR): 5.3 (95% CI: 1.2-23.4]; p=0.005), and performed R1 resection [HR:5.7 (95% CI:1.2-25.3), p=0.02]. Additionally, patients administered chemoradiotherapy (CRT) had a lower risk for recurrence compared to those administered chemotherapy (CT) alone [HR:0.15 (95% CI:0.04-0.57), p=0.005]. Conclusions: Hypoalbuminemia in the preoperative setting and R1 resection were independent factors that affected gastric cancer recurrence. However, postoperative CRT decreased the recurrence rate of gastric cancer compared to CT alone. Low albumin level is an indicator of a systemic inflammatory response and according to previous studies, hypoalbuminemia was a poor prognostic factor in gastric cancer patients. Although CT alone is considered efficient for patients undergone D2 lymph node dissection, our study showed that CRT decreased the recurrence rates compared to CT alone. This result might be related to the higher number of patients undergone D1 dissection in our study.