TURKISH JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, sa.2, ss.329-336, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
Aim: To evaluate the results of postoperative chemoradiotherapy in patients with gastric cancer. Gastric cancer is an important public health problem in Turkey, especially in the eastern Anatolia region. Surgery is the primary modality for managing early-stage disease, but most patients who undergo a curative resection develop locoregional or distant recurrence. Therefore, the administration of adjuvant treatment in gastric cancer has great importance. Materials and methods: Operated patients with stage IB-IV (M0) gastric cancer were enrolled in this study. A total of 148 patients with gastric cancer who had completed adjuvant chemoradiotherapy were evaluated retrospectively Total overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DES), median survival, and 3- and 5-year survival were also determined. Results: Age, lymph node involvement, clinical stage, and surgical margin are prognostic factors that are significantly correlated with the duration of survival. Sex, smoking status, family history, the localization of the tumor, and the type of surgery were found to have no effects on the duration of survival. Tolerable side effects after administration of adjuvant chemotherapy were observed. The median OS and DFS of the patients were found to be 24.56 and 18.1 months, respectively. OS rates for 3- and 5-year survival were 38.3% and 27.6%, respectively. Conclusion: These findings suggest that adjuvant chemoradiotherapy is a highly effective and important treatment option in the overall survival of operated patients with gastric cancer.