Efficacy and Safety of Ramucirumab/nab-paclitaxel for Previously Treated Advanced Gastric Cancer in Community Hospitals.

As the nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-PTX) is free of ethanol and premedication, the duration of administration is shorter and patients can drive themselves to and from the hospital. In the 2018 Japanese gastric cancer treatment guidelines, ramucirumab (RAM) plus weekly nab-PTX is conditionally recommended for previously treated patients with advanced gastric cancer. Here, we retrospectively analysed the efficacy and safety of RAM+nab-PTX for such patients in community hospitals. From January 2018 to December 2019, 43 patients with metastatic and recurrent gastric cancer received RAM+nab-PTX treatment. Six patients (13.9%) were older than 80 years and 9 patients (20.9%) showed ECOG-PS 2. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), overall response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and adverse events (AEs) were reviewed retrospectively. Median PFS was 114 days (95% confidence interval [CI]: 84-190) and median OS was 297 days (95% CI: 180-398). ORR and DCR were 32.4% and 72.2%, respectively. The incidence rates of ≥grade 3 neutropenia and febrile neutropenia were 53.5% and 2.3%, respectively. No treatment-related deaths occurred. RAM plus nab-PTX combination therapy demonstrated manageable toxicity even patients who were elderly or had an ECOG-PS 2. This treatment is useful in community hospital settings.

[A case of synchronous hepatocellular carcinoma successfully treated by S-1 and cisplatin (CDDP) as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer].

Combination chemotherapy with S-1 and cisplatin(S-1/CDDP)has become the standard treatment for gastric cancer, but the effect for hepatocellular carcinoma has not become clear. We experienced a case with advanced gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma at the same time. We used S-1/CDDP as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for the case and performed surgical resection of the gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. From histological examination of the resected specimen, we may be able to prove that the S-1/CDDP chemotherapy for the hepatocellular carcinoma was also effective. A 57-year-old man visited our hospital with epigastralgia. Further examinations revealed a type-3 advanced gastric cancer with bulky N2 and hepatocellular carcinoma at segment 5. The gastric cancer was thought to be too advanced for initial surgery, so we performed S-1/CDDP chemotherapy(S-1 100 mg/body/day, CDDP 20 mg/body twice/week for 2 weeks)as preoperative therapy. After remarkable shrinkage of the gastric cancer was obtained, we performed distal gastrectomy, D2+a lymph node excision, liver S5 segmentectomy and cholecystectomy. The histological examination showed remarkable denaturation and necrosis as grade 2 effectiveness in over two-thirds of the hepatocellular carcinoma area and grade 1b in gastric cancer according to the Japanese classification of gastric carcinoma. This result suggests that S-1/CDDP chemotherapy might therefore be effective as systemic therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. However, further clinical trials are required.