title: FOLFOX versus EOX as a neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen for patients with advanced gastric cancer.
abstract: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the preferred treatment of advanced gastric cancer. However, the choice of an optimal regimen remains controversial. The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of preoperative chemotherapy with EOX and FOLFOX in Chinese patients with advanced gastric cancer. A total of 87 and 26 patients underwent FOLFOX and EOX regimens, respectively, for advanced gastric cancer between July 2004 and September 2012. Clinicopathological characteristics, pathological T stage, N stage and pathological response to tumour regression were retrospectively compared between the two groups. Following neoadjuvant chemotherapy, a higher number of patients manifested deeper invasive cancer in the FOLFOX group than those in the EOX group (P=0.047). In addition, a higher number of patients also exhibited metastatic lymph nodes in the FOLFOX group (67.8%) than in the EOX group (57.7%) (P=0.000). In the FOLFOX and EOX groups, 4 (4.6%) and 3 (11.5%) cases of complete regression were observed, respectively. A higher number of patients (38.5%) also exhibited tumour regression grades of 3 and 4 in the EOX group than in the FOLFOX group (19.5%) (P=0.047). Results of the present study suggest that the EOX regimen may be more effective than the FOLFOX regimen as preoperative chemotherapy for Chinese patients with advanced gastric cancer. The EOX regimen may be suitable for younger patients subjected to individual neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jianguo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wenxian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zinong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Linbo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: capecitabine; epirubicin; gastric cancer; neoadjunvant chemotherapy; oxaliplatin