Survival analysis of stage IV metastatic gastric cancer patients treated with HangAm-Plus

To evaluate the efficacy of HangAm-Plus (HAP) on stage IV metastatic gastric cancer by analyzing the treated patients' overall survival outcome. Following the study eligibility, overall survival and one year survival rate of 44 stage IV metastatic gastric cancer patients who visited East-West Cancer Center (EWCC) were analyzed. The study consisted of two arms: HAP treatment only (n=18) and combined treatment of concurrent conventional chemotherapy and HAP (n=26). Patient characteristics by gender, age, surgical intervention, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score, treatment duration (< 4 weeks or a (c) 3/44 weeks), and lines of the chemotherapy received were assessed. Treatment related side effects were also assessed. The median survival of combined group was longer (10.0 months) than that of HAP group (5.1 months). One-year survival rate of combined treatment group and HAP group was 38.5%+/- 9.5% and 33.3%+/- 11.1%, respectively (P > 0.05). One-year survival rate of those received more and less than 4-week treatment was 57.1%+/- 18.7% and 8.3%+/- 8.0%, respectively (P=0.001). The study supports the safety and potential efficacy of HAP treatment in prevention of chemo-related side effects for stage IV metastatic gastric cancer treated with conventional chemotherapy. Further studies are needed to investigate and confirm the results before applying the treatment in clinical settings.