Efficacy of adjuvant XELOX and FOLFOX6 chemotherapy after D2 dissection for gastric cancer

Table 1 Patient characteristics n (%)

	Surgery only	FOLFOX6		XELOX		P value1
	(n = 634)	(n = 48)	P value	(n = 214)	P value
Age (yr)
Mean ± SD	58.9 ± 12.5	51.2 ± 13.2	< 0.001	55.2 ± 11.4	< 0.001	0.051
Median	60	52		57
Tumor location, whole stomach	23 (3.6)	5 (10.4)		7 (3.3)		0.124
Upper	192 (30.3)	11 (22.9)		55 (25.7)
Middle	148 (23.3)	16 (33.3)		61 (28.5)
Lower	235 (37.1)	14 (29.2)		87 (40.7)
Remnant stomach	36 (5.7)	2 (4.2)		4 (1.9)
Macroscopic Borrmann type			0.035		0.014	0.064
I	39 (6.2)	0 (0.0)		13 (6.1)
II	171 (27)	7 (14.6)		39 (18.2)
III	333 (52.5)	30 (62.5)		138 (64.5)
IV and V	91 (14.4)	11 (22.9)		24 (11.2)
Histological type			0.219		0.013	0.919
Differentiated	245 (38.6)	14 (29.2)		64 (29.9)
Undifferentiated	389 (61.4)	34 (70.8)		150 (70.1)
Pathological T category			< 0.001		< 0.001	0.087
T1 and 2	117 (18.5)	0 (0.0)		9 (4.2)
T3	73 (11.5)	1 (2.1)		23 (10.7)
T4a	342 (53.9)	41 (85.4)		152 (71)
T4b	102 (16.1)	6 (12.5)		30 (14)
Retrieved node
Mean ± SD	26.4 ± 15.9	32.1 ± 19.2	0.019	29.7 ± 14.5	0.004	0.339
Median (range)	24 (0-102)	31 (0-89)		27 (1-91)
Pathological N category			0.005		< 0.001	0.085
N0	268 (42.3)	8 (16.7)		41 (19.2)
N1	91 (14.4)	7 (14.6)		43 (20.1)
N2	108 (17)	12 (25)		52 (24.3)
N3a	89 (14)	9 (18.8)		56 (26.2)
N3b	78 (12.3)	12 (25)		22 (10.3)

¹Capecitabine and oxaliplatin (XELOX) group vs 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) group.

Table 2 Multivariate survival analysis by Cox regressions

	HR and 95%CI				Overall
	HR	Lower	Upper	P value	P value
Adjuvant chemotherapy					0.001
Surgery only	Reference
FOLFOX6	0.762	0.503	1.156	0.201
XELOX	0.564	0.416	0.765	< 0.001
Pathological N category					< 0.001
N0	Reference
N1	1.613	1.049	2.483	0.030
N2	2.952	2.011	4.334	< 0.001
N3a	3.938	2.702	5.739	< 0.001
N3b	5.025	3.382	7.465	< 0.001
Tumor location					0.003
Whole stomach	Reference
Upper	0.671	0.421	1.071	0.094
Middle	0.663	0.414	1.064	0.088
Lower	0.681	0.422	1.099	0.115
Remnant stomach	1.454	0.791	2.675	0.228
Macroscopic Borrmann type					< 0.001
I and II	Reference
III	1.199	0.875	1.642	0.258
IV and V	2.142	1.469	3.124	< 0.001
Pathological T category					< 0.001
T1 and 2
T3	1.112	0.477	2.590	0.806
T4a	3.010	1.574	5.757	0.001
T4b	4.944	2.477	9.870	< 0.001

HR: Hazard ratio; FOLFOX6: 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and oxaliplatin; XELOX: Capecitabine and oxaliplatin.

Table 3 Grade 3/4 adverse reactions in 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and oxaliplatin and capecitabine and oxaliplatin treatment groups n (%)

Adverse reactions	FOLFOX6	XELOX	P value
	(n = 48)	(n = 214)
At least one adverse event	19 (39.6)	75 (35)	0.618
Vomitting	5 (10.4)	16 (7.5)	0.555
Anorexia	5 (10.4)	20 (9.3)	0.788
Oral mucositis	1 (2.0)	3 (1.4)	0.557
Diarrhea	4 (8.3)	14 (6.5)	0.751
Hand-foot syndrome	0 (0.0)	21 (9.8)	0.018
Peripheral neurotoxicity	9 (18.8)	25 (11.7)	0.232
Leukocyte/neutropenia	7 (14.5)	16 (7.5)	0.153
Thrombocytopenia	4 (8.3)	14 (6.5)	0.751
ALT/AST increase	1 (2.0)	5 (2.3)	0.999

AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; FOLFOX6: 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and oxaliplatin; XELOX: Capecitabine and oxaliplatin.