A Phase III Trial of Preoperative vs. Postoperative Chemotherapy With Taxotere-Cisplatin-5FU (TCF) in Patients With Locally Advanced Operable Gastric Carcinoma

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare, by intention to treat analysis, feasibility and efficacy of 4 courses of docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil as preoperative or postoperative chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced operable gastric carcinoma.
• Evaluate the predictive values of some biological and molecular tumor parameters on response to chemotherapy, metastasis and survival in this patient population.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open label, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to study center, tumor site (affecting the Z-line (cardia carcinoma Siewart II and III) vs rest of the stomach), and nodal status (positive vs negative). Patients are randomized to either preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery (arm I) or surgery followed by postoperative chemotherapy (arm II).

• Arm I: Patients receive docetaxel IV over 1 hour followed by cisplatin IV over 4 hours on day 1, and fluorouracil IV continuously on days 1-14 every 3 weeks. Patients are evaluated after 2 courses and patients with progressive disease proceed to immediate surgery. Otherwise, treatment continues for a total of 4 courses in the absence of unacceptable toxicity or disease progression. Between 3-5 weeks following day 1 of the last course of chemotherapy, patients undergo gastric resection.
• Arm II: Patients undergo immediate gastric resection. Beginning 3-6 weeks after surgery, patients receive 4 courses of docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil as in arm I.

Quality of life is assessed before the first and third courses of chemotherapy, before and after surgery, and then at 1, 3, and 6 months.