Prognostic value of disseminated tumor cells (DTC) identification in bone marrow from patients with advanced gastric or esophagogastric junction (EGJ) adenocarcinoma (interim results)

Aim/Background

To identify DTC in bone marrow (BM) as a therapeutically significant target to predict survival of patients with stage IV gastric cancer.

Methods

A total of 27 patients with advanced gastric cancer were enrolled, median age 52 years. All patients received thriplet chemotherapy. Baseline BM-DCT were identified by flow cytometry. BM-DTC positivity was defined as at least 1 tumor cell per 10 million myelokaryocytes.

Results

BM-DTC were found in 18 of 27 patients. Median survival was 6.5 months in BM-DTC positive vs. 9.2 months in BM-DTC negative patients (p = 0.019). The table below summarizes the clinicomorphological findings. Table. Relationship between DTC-positivity and clinicomorphological parameters.

Conclusions

The presence of DTC in BM of patients with advanced gastric cancer is a poor prognostic factor associated with a high risk of early progression. BM-DTC were identified significantly more frequently in cases with EGJ and total gastric cancer, and in patients free from peritoneal carcinomatosis; there was also a correlation with tumor histology. The study is in ongoing

Clinical trial identification

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.