Retrospective evaluation of the efficacy of first-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer with docetaxel and oxaliplatin.

The incidence rate of gastric cancer is highest in China, where 5 in 10 new cases of stomach cancer across the world are diagnosed. Even though surgical management is the treatment of choice, it is not significantly effective due to advanced stage of the disease at diagnosis and the increased chances of primary tumor recurrence and metastasis to secondary organs. First-line chemotherapy of advanced gastric cancer patients recommend oxaliplatin and docetaxel; however, not much is known about their usage in Chinese patients. Therefore we retrospectively analyzed 199 cases of advanced gastric cancer (intestinal, diffuse, and mixed types) receiving either docetaxel or oxaliplatin-based first-line chemotherapy. The end-points determined were objective response rate (ORR, sum of complete and partial responses), disease control rate (DCR, sum of complete response, partial response, and stable disease), median progression-free survival (mPFS), and median overall survival (OS) time. Both docetaxel and oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy exhibited improved ORR and DCR; however, the comparison of short-term objective efficacy (ORR and DCR) was not statistically significant (p > .05) between the two groups. Our results indicated that PFS and OS of intestinal-type gastric cancer were extended compared with diffuse-type and mixed-type gastric cancer. Adverse reactions were within the control range and after symptomatic treatment were significantly ameliorated. Both docetaxel and oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy thus had a robust treatment outcome and can prospectively be used as one of the effective chemotherapy regimens for advanced gastric cancer patients in China.