Safety and efficacy of perioperative FLOT regimen in Japanese patients with gastric, esophagogastric junction, or esophageal adenocarcinoma: a single-institution experience

Abstract

Background: Although the common treatment strategy for localized gastric cancer in Japan is gastrectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy, several randomized studies in non-Japanese populations have established perioperative chemotherapy as the standard treatment of localized gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Therefore, we have implemented this strategy in our institution. Patients and methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with resectable gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and esophageal adenocarcinoma who had received perioperative FLOT (5-fluorouracil plus docetaxel plus oxaliplatin plus leucovorin) from February 2020 to February 2023. Results: In this study, a total of 91 patients were analyzed, with a median age of 70 years (range: 29-82). At the time of diagnosis, 83 patients (91.2%) had T3 or higher-grade primary lesions, and 85 (93.4%) had lymph node metastasis. A total of 10 patients had resection before completing four cycles of preoperative chemotherapy, and 77 of 91 (84.6%) completed four cycles with 74 of them receiving radical resection. Among the 84 patients who had radical resection after FLOT, 82 (97.6%) achieved R0 resection, including 8 (9.5%) with a pathological complete response. After resection, 60 patients (65.9%) received at least one cycle of post-operative FLOT, and 47 (51.6%) completed eight cycles of FLOT treatment. Chemotherapy-related adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred during the pre- and post-operative FLOT in 60 patients (65.9%), including leukopenia (30.8%), neutropenia (50.5%), febrile neutropenia (5.5%), and anorexia (7.7%). No treatment-related deaths occurred. Conclusions: These findings were comparable to those in the pivotal FLOT 4 trial, suggesting acceptable feasibility of the FLOT regimen in Japanese clinical practice.

Keywords

• esophageal adenocarcinoma
• FLOT
• gastric cancer
• gastroesophageal junction cancer
• Japanese patients
• perioperative chemotherapy