Prognostic Significance of Conversion Surgery Following First- or Second-line Chemotherapy for Unresectable Gastric Cancer

BACKGROUND/AIM: Advances in chemotherapy for gastric cancer have encouraged surgeons to perform conversion surgery following a response to first-line chemotherapy in patients with initially unresectable gastric cancer. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of conversion surgery following first- or second-line chemotherapy for unresectable gastric cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed clinicopathological and survival data of 94 patients with unresectable gastric cancer treated with first- (n=94) or second-line (n=43) chemotherapy. RESULTS: Patients who converted to surgery following first- (n=26) or second-line (n=5) chemotherapy had significantly longer survival times than those treated with chemotherapy alone (n=63) (p<0.01). Survival length did not differ significantly between patients converted to surgery following first- and second-line chemotherapy. Among 31 patients who underwent conversion surgery, one initial non-curative factor (odds ratio(OR)=0.49; 95% confidence interval (95%CI)=0.22-0.95; p=0.03) was the only significant independent predictor of longer survival in multivariate Cox regression analysis. CONCLUSION: Patients with unresectable gastric cancer initially exhibiting one noncurative factor may obtain survival benefit from conversion surgery after a response to both first- and second-line chemotherapy.