Gastrectomy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in five cases of locally advanced gastric cancer with pancreatic head invasion

Locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) with pancreatic head invasion (T4b) carries a poor prognosis despite radical surgery. Herein, we report the effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in improving the resectability of advanced gastric cancer with pancreatic invasion. A total of 2191 cases of gastric cancer were retrospectively analyzed from 13 institutions within the Hiroshima Surgical Study Group of Clinical Oncology (Hisco) database from 2018 to 2020. Among them, 5 of the 24 patients with Stage cT4b gastric cancer underwent NAC for three-to-eight cycles. Following chemotherapy, three patients underwent total gastrectomy, two patients underwent distal gastrectomy, and no patient underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). All five patients achieved a chemotherapeutic response of Grade 1b or higher, and only one case showed residual pancreatic invasion on pathology. This study suggests that NAC for Stage T4b LAGC with pancreatic head invasion may have the potential to obviate the need for PD.