Endoscopic ultrasound and computed tomography in restaging and predicting prognosis after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer

BACKGROUND. The objective of the current study was to assess the staging accuracy and prognostic role of preoperative endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and computed tomography (CT) in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. METHODS. Presurgical LAGC patients underwent EUS and CT before and after 3 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Chemotherapy was comprised of docetaxel (at a dose of 36 mg/m(2)) and cisplatin (at a dose of 40 mg/m(2)) on Days 1 and 8 of a 3-week cycle. RESULTS. Forty patients were enrolled in the study. After chemotherapy, the accuracy of EUS and CT was found to be 47% and 57%, respectively for T classification (P=.22) and 39% and 37%, respectively for N classification (P >.99). The 3-year overall survival (OS) rate for patients downstaged with EUS for T and/or N classification was greater than that for nondownstaged patients (69% vs 41%; P=.05). The 2-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate was also better for the EUS-downstaged patients than for the nondownstaged patients (77% vs 47%; P=.04). On multivariate analysis, EUS downstaging was found to be correlated with OS (hazards ratio [HR] of 0.12; P=.04), and was correlated with RFS with borderline statistical significance (HR of 0.27; P=.07). The differences in OS and RFS between the patients downstaged with CT and those not downstaged were not found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS. Restaging by EUS and CT after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with LAGC was found to be inaccurate. However, T and/or N downstaging by EUS was found to be correlated with better OS and RFS. Thus, downstaging by EUS may be a useful clinical parameter with which to predict a better outcome for LAGC patients.