title: Efficacy of adjuvant immunochemotherapy with polysaccharide K for patients with curative resections of gastric cancer.
abstract: Non-specific immunopotentiators, such as polysaccharide K (PSK), also known as OK-432, induce anti-tumor effects via immunological responses. The efficacy of combination immunochemotherapy using these immunopotentiators has been examined by multiple previous studies. The survival benefits of immunochemotherapy for patients with curative resections of gastric cancers are not widely accepted. To clarify this issue, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of immunochemotherapy on survival in patients with curative resections of gastric cancer. For this study, we compared the results of chemotherapy and immunotherapy using the biological response modifier PSK as an immunopotentiator. The meta-analysis included 8,009 patients from eight randomized controlled trials after central randomization. The overall hazard ratio for eligible patients was 0.88 (95% confidence interval, 0.79-0.98; P = 0.018) with no significant heterogeneity [chi (2)(8) for heterogeneity = 11.7; P = 0.16]. The results of this meta-analysis suggest that adjuvant immunochemotherapy with PSK improves the survival of patients after curative gastric cancer resection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiological and Clinical Research Information Management, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan. oba@pbh.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oba
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Teramukai
authors.forename: Michiya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Takanori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kodera
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D010844:Picibanil / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial; D010844:Picibanil