Adjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer with S-1, an oral fluoropyrimidine
Shinichi Sakuramoto, Mitsuru Sasako, Toshiharu Yamaguchi, Taira Kinoshita, Masashi Fujii, Atsushi Nashimoto, Hiroshi Furukawa, Toshifusa Nakajima, Yasuo Ohashi, Hiroshi Imamura, Masayuki Higashino, Yoshitaka Yamamura, Akira Kurita, Kuniyoshi Arai, ACTS-GC Group, Shinichi Sakuramoto, Mitsuru Sasako, Toshiharu Yamaguchi, Taira Kinoshita, Masashi Fujii, Atsushi Nashimoto, Hiroshi Furukawa, Toshifusa Nakajima, Yasuo Ohashi, Hiroshi Imamura, Masayuki Higashino, Yoshitaka Yamamura, Akira Kurita, Kuniyoshi Arai, ACTS-GC Group
Abstract
Background: Advanced gastric cancer can respond to S-1, an oral fluoropyrimidine. We tested S-1 as adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with curatively resected gastric cancer.
Methods: Patients in Japan with stage II or III gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy with extended (D2) lymph-node dissection were randomly assigned to undergo surgery followed by adjuvant therapy with S-1 or to undergo surgery only. In the S-1 group, administration of S-1 was started within 6 weeks after surgery and continued for 1 year. The treatment regimen consisted of 6-week cycles in which, in principle, 80 mg of oral S-1 per square meter of body-surface area per day was given for 4 weeks and no chemotherapy was given for the following 2 weeks. The primary end point was overall survival.
Results: We randomly assigned 529 patients to the S-1 group and 530 patients to the surgery-only group between October 2001 and December 2004. The trial was stopped on the recommendation of the independent data and safety monitoring committee, because the first interim analysis, performed 1 year after enrollment was completed, showed that the S-1 group had a higher rate of overall survival than the surgery-only group (P=0.002). Analysis of follow-up data showed that the 3-year overall survival rate was 80.1% in the S-1 group and 70.1% in the surgery-only group. The hazard ratio for death in the S-1 group, as compared with the surgery-only group, was 0.68 (95% confidence interval, 0.52 to 0.87; P=0.003). Adverse events of grade 3 or grade 4 (defined according to the Common Toxicity Criteria of the National Cancer Institute) that were relatively common in the S-1 group were anorexia (6.0%), nausea (3.7%), and diarrhea (3.1%).
Conclusions: S-1 is an effective adjuvant treatment for East Asian patients who have undergone a D2 dissection for locally advanced gastric cancer. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00152217 [ClinicalTrials.gov].).
Copyright 2007 Massachusetts Medical Society.
Source: PubMed