Perioperative chemotherapy in locally advanced gastric cancer in Chile: From evidence to daily practice.

92 Background: Gastric cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Chile, with mortality rate of 26.7/100.000 in men, placing the country among the highest mortality rates worldwide. For locally advanced gastric cancer, a multimodality treatment is recommended, but in Chile, the treatment covered by the public health insurance, which assists more than 70% of the patients, is surgery alone. We conducted an observational study to assess efficacy and toxicity of perioperative chemotherapy (CT) in public hospitals in Chile (NCT01633203). Methods: Patients with locally advanced, operable gastric carcinoma, defined as presence of invasion of serosa or beyond (cT > 3 AJCC 2002) and/or lymph node metastasis (cN+) without distant metastasis (M0), were offered to receive preoperative CT with Epirubicin+Cisplatin+Capecitabine (ECX) regimen for 3 cycles followed by curative surgery with D2 lymphadenectomy. Staging abdominal CT scan was mandatory, laparoscopy was recommended. Patients with gastric retention, severe...