Pathological complete remission in patients with oesophagogastric cancer receiving preoperative 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and docetaxel

The aim of this study was to determine the pathological complete remission (pCR) rate, and its relationship to clinical outcome, in patients with adenocarcinoma of the stomach or oesophagogastric junction receiving preoperative 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin and docetaxel (FLOT) every 2 weeks. Data from these patients who received at least one cycle of preoperative FLOT followed by surgery were prospectively collected in three German centres. Outcome analyses were conducted and tumour samples were evaluated for pathological remission by a central pathologist. A total of 46 patients were included in this analysis. All patients had clinical T3- and/or N+-stages and 11 (23.9%) had distant metastases (M1). After a median of 4 (range 2-8) preoperative cycles, 8 of 46 patients (17.4%) achieved a pCR. The pCR rate was highest in tumours of intestinal type histology (30.8%) and in those located in the oesophagogastric junction (30.4%) and lowest in patients with diffuse/mixed type tumours (0%) or tumours located in the stomach (4.3%; p < 0.05 for both comparisons). Patients with pCR had 100% probability of overall and disease-free survival (DFS) during the observation period, which was significantly higher (p = 0.037 and p = 0.009, respectively) than the survival probability in patients without pCR. In conclusion, treatment intensification using FLOT was associated with significant pCR rates in patients with oesophagogastric cancer. The distribution of pCR appeared to be significantly different according to histological type and location of the tumours.