Comparison of efficacy and tolerance of first-line palliative chemotherapy EOX and mDCF regimens in patients with locally advanced inoperable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma without overexpression of HER2 receptors.

Abstract

135 Background: The aim of the study was to compare efficacy and tolerance of first-line palliative chemotherapy EOX (epirubicin/oxaliplatin/capecitabine) and mDCF (docetaxel/cisplatin/5FU/leucovorin) regimens in patients with locally advanced inoperable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma without overexpression of HER2 receptors. Methods: Each chemotherapy regimen was assigned with 21 patients. Planned treatment consisted of 12 every-two-weeks mDCF cycles (docetaxel 40 mg/m2 day 1, leucovorin 400 mg/m2 day 1, 5FU 400 mg/m2 bolus day 1, 5FU 1000 mg/m2/d days 1 and 2, cisplatin 40 mg/m2 day 3) or 8 every-three-weeks EOX cycles (epirubicin 50mg/m2 day 1, oxaliplatin 130mg/m2 day 1, capecitabine 1250mg/m2/d days 1 to 21). The primary endpoint was overall survival in all patients who commenced at least one chemotherapy cycle. Results: Median progression-free survival was 5.8 months in EOX group and 7.5 months in mDCF group (p=0.11), and median overall survival was 8.5 months and 12.0 months respectively (p=0.219). Due to toxicity, patients in the EOX arm had more frequent reductions of cytostatics doses (42.9% vs 5.0%; p=0.009) as well as delays in the administration of subsequent chemotherapy cycles (81.0% vs 65.0%; p=0.424). Rates of all grade 3 or 4 adverse events were comparable between both arms (76.19% in the EOX vs 70.0% in the mDCF; p=1.000). Toxicities that occurred more frequently in the EOX group compared to mDCF group were: nausea (28.6% vs 5.0%; p=0.093), thromboembolic events (19.0% vs 10%; p=0.663) and grade 3 or 4 neutropenia (71.4% vs 55.0%; p=0.443). Conclusions: In this patients population with locally advanced inoperable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma without overexpression of HER2 receptors treatment with mDCF regimen was associated with a statistically non-significant 3.5 month longer median overall survival without increase in toxicity. Updated data will be presented.