Brief Article
Copyright ©2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2014; 20(1): 264-273
Published online Jan 7, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i1.264
Adjuvant chemotherapy, p53, carcinoembryonic antigen expression and prognosis after D2 gastrectomy for gastric adenocarcinoma
Ming-Ming He, Dong-Sheng Zhang, Feng Wang, Zhi-Qiang Wang, Hui-Yan Luo, Chao Ren, Ying Jin, Dong-Liang Chen, Rui-Hua Xu
Ming-Ming He, Dong-Sheng Zhang, Feng Wang, Zhi-Qiang Wang, Hui-Yan Luo, Chao Ren, Ying Jin, Dong-Liang Chen, Rui-Hua Xu, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: He MM and Zhang DS contributed equally to this work; He MM, Zhang DS and Xu RH designed the research; He MM, Zhang DS, Wang F, Wang ZQ and Luo HY performed the research; Ren C and Jin Y contributed new reagents/analytic tools; He MM, Zhang DS and Chen DL analyzed the data; He MM, Zhang DS and Wang F wrote the paper.
Supported by National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program), China, No. 2012AA02A506; Science and Technology Department of Guangdong Province, China, No. 2012B031800088; and Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province, China, No. C2011019
Correspondence to: Rui-Hua Xu, MD, PhD, Professor, Vice-President, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, No. 651, Dongfeng East Road, Guangzhou 510060, Guangdong Province, China. xurh@sysucc.org.cn
Telephone: +86-20-87343228 Fax: +86-20-87343392.
Received: October 2, 2013
Revised: November 2, 2013
Accepted: November 18, 2013
Published online: January 7, 2014
Abstract

AIM: To investigate adjuvant chemotherapy, p53 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) expression and prognosis after D2 gastrectomy for stage II/III gastric adenocarcinoma.

METHODS: A total of 286 patients with stage II or III gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent D2 radical gastrectomy between May 2007 and December 2010 were enrolled into this study. One hundred and sixty-nine of these patients received surgery plus adjuvant chemotherapy, and 117 patients received surgery alone. Tumor expression of p53 and CEA proteins in all patients was evaluated immunohistochemically and correlated with clinicopathological parameters. The Kaplan-Meier curves for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) with log-rank testing were used to compare the survival difference. A Cox proportional hazard regression model was used for multivariate analysis.

RESULTS: Patients with adjuvant chemotherapy had a significantly better median OS (50.87 mo vs 30.73 mo, P = 0.000) and median DFS (36.30 mo vs 25.60 mo, P = 0.001) than patients with surgery alone in the entire cohort. Consistent results with the entire cohort were found in stage II (P = 0.006 and P = 0.047), stage III (P = 0.005 and P = 0.030), and stage IIIB/IIIC patients (P = 0.000 and P = 0.001). The median OS and DFS advantages were confirmed by multivariate analysis (P = 0.000 and P = 0.008) and maintained when the analyses were restricted to fluoropyrimidine monotherapy (P = 0.003 and P = 0.001) and fluoropyrimidine plus platinum regimen (P = 0.001 and P = 0.007), however, not the fluoropyrimidine plus taxane (P = 0.198 and P = 0.777) or platinum plus taxane (P = 0.666 and P = 0.687) regimens. Median OS and median DFS did not differ significantly between the patients with p53(+) and p53(-) tumors (P = 0.608 and P = 0.064), or between patients with CEA(+) and CEA(-) tumors (P = 0.052 and P = 0.989), which were maintained when the analyses were restricted to surgery alone (p53: P = 0.864 and P = 0.431; CEA: P = 0.142 and P = 0.948), adjuvant chemotherapy (p53: P = 0.802 and P = 0.091; CEA: P = 0.223 and P = 0.946) and even different chemotherapy regimens (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Patients after D2 gastrectomy for stage II/III gastric adenocarcinoma had significantly better survival after fluoropyrimidine monotherapy and fluoropyrimidine plus platinum. p53 and CEA were not prognostic.

Keywords: Gastric adenocarcinoma, Adjuvant chemotherapy, p53, Carcinoembryonic antigen, Immunohistochemistry

Core tip: Patients after D2 gastrectomy for stage II/III gastric adenocarcinoma had a significant survival benefit after adjuvant chemotherapy compared with surgery alone, which was maintained when restricted to stage II, III or IIIB/IIIC patients. The survival did not differ significantly between the patients with p53(+) and p53(-) tumors, or between patients with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)(+) and CEA(-) tumors, which were maintained when the analyses were restricted to surgery alone, adjuvant chemotherapy and even different chemotherapy regimens. p53 and CEA immunohistochemical expression is not prognostic for survival after D2 gastrectomy.