The earlier initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy does not appear to significantly impact long-term survival in patients with resected pancreatic cancer. Because adjuvant chemotherapy confers a survival benefit, delayed chemotherapy should be offered when appropriate. Cancer 2016;122:2979-2987. © 2016 American Cancer Society.

Background: This study's objective was to evaluate the change in sarcopenia score following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and to correlate both sarcopenia and change in score with perioperative outcomes in patients with advanced resected gastric cancer.Methods: Multi-institutional analysis of patients with gastric cancer who underwent NAC and resection from 2000-2015 was performed. Demographic and perioperative data were included. Sarcopenia score was defined as CT measurement of total psoas muscle at L3, stratified by height (m). Sarcopenia was defined as a score <385 mm 2 /m 2 in women and <545 mm 2 /m 2 in men.Results: Of 36 patients, 19% were sarcopenic prior to NAC. Following NAC, 31% were sarcopenic, with 14% developing sarcopenia during NAC. One patient (3%) became non-sarcopenic. There were no significant differences in patient, disease, or surgery characteristics between patients who were sarcopenic vs.not. Patients with sarcopenia were more likely to have post-operative complications (P=0.05). There was no significant difference in hospital stay (P=0.7402) or survival (P=0.2317).Conclusions: A significant number of patients with gastric cancer become sarcopenic during NAC.Although patients with sarcopenia were nearly twice as likely to develop post-operative complications, this did not appear to impact length of stay (LOS) or survival. and strength two standard deviations below that of healthy adults, has been used as a clinically significant marker of biological age, and has been found to be associated with functional impairment, perioperative complications, and decreased survival in patients with nonmalignant conditions (4-6). Changes in body composition on computed topography (CT) imaging occur after neoadjuvant treatment in many cancers, including esophageal and breast cancer (7)(8)(9)(10).This study sought to understand the impact of NAC on sarcopenia and to evaluate whether sarcopenia is correlated with perioperative outcomes in patients with advanced resected gastric cancer. Methods Patient selectionThis was a multi-institutional, retrospective cohort study. Records of patients who underwent NAC and surgery for gastric adenocarcinoma at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Moffitt Cancer Center from March 2000 to April 2015 were reviewed. Only patients who had both pre-NAC and post-NAC CT or positron emission tomography (PET-CT) scans, were included in final analysis. Outcomes and covariatesPatient characteristics [including age, sex, body mass index (BMI), comorbidities, pre-operative weight], disease characteristics [American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) T and N stage, tumor size, lymph nodes], and treatment characteristics (surgical approach, type of resection, NAC regimen, surgical margins) were retrospectively collected from the electronic medical record. Post-operative complications, hospital length of stay (LOS), and overall survival were the primary outcomes. Surgical complications were classified by the Clavien-Dindo Classification of Surgical Complications Scale, which grades com...

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Concomitant presence of tumor deposits and lymph node invasion carries poor prognostic significance. Tumor deposits alone appear to have prognostic implications similar to lymph node invasion alone.

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Perineural invasion (PNI) has been implicated as a poor prognostic indicator in many cancers. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends consideration of observation or adjuvant therapy in the presence of PNI in early colon cancer. These recommendations are based on single institutional studies that fail to evaluate PNI within the context of adjuvant chemotherapy. The US National Cancer Database (2004-2012) was reviewed for patients with node negative colon cancer, and stratified by PNI and receipt of chemotherapy. Of 21,488 patients evaluated, 55.2% had T3 disease (n = 11,852), 23.1% had T2 (n = 4,971), 14.4% had T1 (n = 3,088), and 7.3% had T4 disease (n = 1,577); 4.6% (n = 987) had PNI. Most patients (86.8%, n = 18,641) did not have PNI and did not receive chemotherapy; 8.7% (n = 1,860) did not have PNI but received chemotherapy; 3.7% (n = 785) had PNI and did not receive chemotherapy, and 0.9% (n = 202) had PNI and received chemotherapy. Among those with PNI, patients who received chemotherapy tended to be younger (P<0.001), covered by private insurance (P<0.001), with fewer comorbidities (P<0.001), and greater T stage disease (P<0.001). Those with PNI who received chemotherapy had significantly improved survival over those who did not in T3-4 disease (P<0.001), but not in T1-2 disease. On multivariate analysis, those with PNI had a 38% greater hazard of mortality (HR 1.38, P<0.001). Additionally, chemotherapy decreased the hazard of mortality by 43% (HR 0.57, P<0.001). PNI appears to be an independent poor prognostic indicator in stage T3-4 node negative colon cancer. Chemotherapy administered to this patient population is associated with improved survival.

Despite the continued dismal prognosis of pancreatic cancer, palliation of symptoms remains underutilized in this country, particularly in non-Caucasian, older patients. Increased awareness of palliative options may help increase its utilization.

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