The purpose of this study was to evaluate the treatment result of surgical resection after preoperative chemotherapy in inoperable gastric cancer patients.

We analyzed 18 gastric cancer patients who underwent gastric resection after preoperative chemotherapy because they showed some clinical response to chemotherapy (15 with distant metastasis and 3 with locally advanced lesions). The mean postoperative follow-up period was 15.3±15.5 (1~56) months.

In 15 patients with distant metastasis, 2 (13.3%) showed complete response (CR), 10 (66.7%) partial response (PR), 2 (13.3%) stable disease (SD), and 1 (6.7%) progressive disease (PD). The clinical response rate was 80.0%. Five subtotal gastrectomies, 4 total gastrectomies, and 6 extended total gastrectomies were performed. Two cases of CR were alive without recurrence for 4 and 26 months, respectively. Mean survival period in PR case was 37.7 months, but 2 cases of SD and 1 case of PD died after 11.7, 17.9, and 0.9 months, respectively. Postoperative survival was significantly associated with the response to chemotherapy (P<0.01). The mean survival period of the 10 patients with a complete resection was 44.1 months, which was significantly better than that of the 5 patients with an incomplete resection (9.8 months, P=0.03). Among 3 patients with locally advanced gastric cancer, 2 cases showed PR to chemotherapy, and complete resection was possible only by gastrectomy for those patients.

In some selected cases, surgical resection was achievable after preoperative chemotherapy for patients with inoperable metastatic or locally advanced gastric cancer.