Adjuvant Chemoradiotherapy After Curative Resection for Gastric Cancer

Standard adjuvant therapy for gastric cancer is either postoperative 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and radiation therapy, or pre- and postoperative chemotherapy with epirubicin, cisplatin, and 5-FU (ECF) without radiation. Adequacy of the primary tumor resection may affect the contribution of radiation therapy to adjuvant chemotherapy.

Now, investigators for the U.S. Alliance (formerly CALGB) report results of a randomized phase III trial (80101) comparing postoperative 5-FU and radiation therapy plus 3 months of adjuvant 5-FU and leucovorin versus 5-FU and radiation therapy with the substitution of the potentially more active ECF regimen for 5-FU and leucovorin; patients received continuous infusion 5-FU during radiation therapy. The trial involved…