Abstract:

It is well known that stomach cancer (GC) has favourable outcome and survival with curative chemotherapy and radiotherapy following surgery. There is not enough literature regarding adjuvant treatment in elderly patients with GC. For this reason in this study we aimed to investigate the outcomes of adjuvant treatment of elderly (over 70 years) GC patients. We retrospectively investigated 42 elderly patients' hospital records. From 2005 to 2012, 42 patients older than 70 years had been treated with adjuvant therapy. The average age of the patients was 74, 20 patients were women and 22 patients were male. Sixty five percent of patients received chemoradiation and remaining 35% received only chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment. In the study population, 48% of patients completed all 6 cycles, 21% of patients had 5 cycles of chemotherapy. Four (15%) patients have not completed radiotherapy due to toxicity. Four patients died during chemotherapy. Mean follow up period was 25 months after the adjuvant treatment. The average of overall survival was 21 months, progression-free survival was 11.5 months and disease-free survival was 7 months of the study population. Multiple regression analysis revealed that, tumor grade, total dose of chemotherapy had statistically significant effect on the overall survival (P values were 0.001 and 0.002 respectively). Patients had favourable outcomes who adjuvant chemoradiotherapy or chemotherapy in elderly patients with stomach cancer. Patients who complete the all cycles of chemotherapy and radiation therapy had the most benefit from this treatment. Colony-stimulating agents following the chemotherapy reduce the risk of side effects in elderly patients and this is an acceptable toxicity profile

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