Epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capectabine is just as "MAGIC"al as epirubicin, cisplatin, and fluorouracil perioperative chemotherapy for resectable locally advanced gastro-oesophageal cancer

Abstract

Background: The perioperative use of epirubicin, cisplatin, and fluorouracil (ECF) significantly improves outcomes in patients with gastric and gastro-oesophageal (GO) cancers but is cumbersome to administer. Given the equivalence of epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capectabine (EOX) with ECF in advanced setting, we analyzed the compliance, efficacy, and toxicity of perioperative EOX in resectable but locally advanced cancers.

Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively maintained database of patients treated between January 2012 and September 2013 at Tata Memorial Centre. Patients were planned to receive 3# of neoadjuvant (NA) and 3# of adjuvant EOX (intravenous epirubicin 50 mg/m 2 D1, oxaliplatin 130 mg/m 2 , on D1, capecitabiine 1250 mg/m 2 D1-21) every 21 days. On completion of NA therapy, patients were planned to undergo gastrectomy and D2 lymphadenectomy.

Results: A total of 99 patients (76% males, median age 51 years) were treated with perioperative EOX. Preoperatively, 93% patients completed EOX. Post-NA chemotherapy, 4 patients progressed, 1 patient died and 94 were taken up for surgery. Of these, 9 were inoperable and 85 patients underwent radical surgery. Of these, 71% (60/85) were able to complete three cycles of adjuvant EOX. The compliance to complete all 6 cycles of perioperative chemotherapy was 64%. Grade 3 and 4 toxicities were comparable to the MAGIC dataset apart from higher number of diarrhea in our patients.

Conclusions: In patients with resectable GO adenocarcinoma, it is possible to deliver the MAGIC-type perioperative chemotherapy with EOX with better compliance, toxicity, and efficacy rates.