The survival impact of the intergroup 0116 trial on patients with gastric cancer

Abstract

Purpose: The Intergroup 0116 (INT 0116) trial demonstrated a survival benefit for a broad group of fully resected gastric cancer patients. This study examined the impact on survival of the release of this landmark trial.

Methods and materials: Patients with gastric carcinoma diagnosed between 1995 and 2004 were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patients from the overall population as well as those potentially eligible for the INT 0116 trial were classified as having been diagnosed either before (1995-1999) or after (2000-2004) this trial. Both Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox models were used to examine survival trends within these cohorts.

Results: For the overall population of 22,982 patients, the use of radiotherapy (RT) significantly changed after the INT 0116 trial (p < 0.0001), with postoperative RT increasing from 6.5% to 13.3%. For the two periods of interest, overall survival significantly improved in recent years (p = 0.00008). A similar improvement was also seen for patients who were potentially eligible for the INT 0116 trial (p = 0.004), with 3-year survival rates improving from 32.2% to 34.5%. On both univariate and multivariate analysis, use of RT was associated with a significant survival improvement (HR, 0.65 [0.48-0.88]; p = 0.005).

Conclusion: Use of postoperative RT for gastric cancer has significantly increased after the release of the INT 0116 trial, likely reflecting increased use of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. This change has been associated with improved survival in gastric cancer patients, suggesting that the improved outcome seen in this trial has been successfully translated to the community.