title: Correlation between tumor response to first-line chemotherapy and prognosis in advanced gastric cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In advanced gastric cancer, the relationship between tumor response and prognosis is far from clear.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a pooled analysis on published data from 4593 patients in 25 randomized trials of first-line chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer. A weighed analysis was used to investigate the correlation between objective response rate (RR) and time to progression (TTP) and overall survival time (OS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A moderate correlation was found between RR and TTP and OS (r = 0.49 and r = 0.45, respectively) in all 25 trials. In treatment arms without new drugs including irinotecan, taxanes, or oxaliplatin, RR also was associated with TTP and OS (r = 0.56 and r = 0.47, respectively). However, no association between RR and OS was found, whereas there was a moderate correlation between RR and TTP (r = 0.41) in treatment arms using new drugs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicated that response to treatment was related to TTP and OS. The potential role of objective response as a surrogate in chemotherapy trials of advanced gastric cancer warrants further investigation, especially with regard to treatment with new drugs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology, Saitama Medical School, Saitama 350-049, Japan. wataru@saitama-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sasaki
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome