Survival of second-line irinotecan-based chemotherapy in early relapse patients with gastric cancer after adjuvant chemotherapy: Exploratory subgroup analysis of TRICS trial.

99Background: Second-line chemotherapy (SLC) was reported to improve the survival of advanced gastric cancer (AGC). The TRICS trial which a randomized phase III study of second-line irinotecan plus cisplatin versus irinotecan alone in patients with AGC refractory to S-1 monotherapy, revealed that both irinotecan based chemotherapies were effective with favorable long-term survivals and generally well tolerated. Eligible patients included patients with recurrence within 6 months after the completion of adjuvant therapy with S-1 (early relapse cases), or patients with tumor progression after first-line S-1 for an advanced cancer (progressive cases), in this trial. However, it is unclear whether survivals in early relapse cases were different from these in progressive cases or not. Methods: A total of 168 patients registered to the TRICS trial were classified as early relapse group (n = 111) or progressive group (n = 57), and 168 (irinotecan plus cisplatin, early relapse 56/83, 67%; irinotecan alone, 55/85, ...