Palliative chemotherapy

Investigators in Korea randomly assigned patients with advanced gastric cancer who had previously received one or two chemotherapy regimens that involved both a fluoropyrimidine and a platinum agent to receive either salvage chemotherapy or best supportive care in a 2:1 fashion.[32] Salvage chemotherapy consisted of either docetaxel (60 mg/m2 every 3 weeks) or irinotecan (150 mg/m2 every 2 weeks) and was left to the discretion of the treating physicians. Of the 202 patients enrolled, 133 received salvage chemotherapy and 69 received best supportive care.

Investigators in Korea randomly assigned patients with advanced gastric cancer who had previously received one or two chemotherapy regimens that involved both a fluoropyrimidine and a platinum agent to receive either salvage chemotherapy or best supportive care in a 2:1 fashion.[32] Salvage chemotherapy consisted of either docetaxel (60 mg/m2 every 3 weeks) or irinotecan (150 mg/m2 every 2 weeks) and was left to the discretion of the treating physicians. Of the 202 patients enrolled, 133 received salvage chemotherapy and 69 received best supportive care.

The median OS was 5.3 months in the group that received salvage chemotherapy and 3.8 months in the group that received best supportive care (HR, 0.657; P = .007).

Investigators in Korea randomly assigned patients with advanced gastric cancer who had previously received one or two chemotherapy regimens that involved both a fluoropyrimidine and a platinum agent to receive either salvage chemotherapy or best supportive care in a 2:1 fashion.[32] Salvage chemotherapy consisted of either docetaxel (60 mg/m2 every 3 weeks) or irinotecan (150 mg/m2 every 2 weeks) and was left to the discretion of the treating physicians. Of the 202 patients enrolled, 133 received salvage chemotherapy and 69 received best supportive care.

There was no difference in median OS between docetaxel and irinotecan (5.2 months vs. 6.5 months, P = .116).[32][Level of evidence A1]