Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy inhibits early recurrence of early gastric carcinoma.

Data on 300 patients with early gastric carcinoma who underwent curative resection were analyzed for the suppressive effects of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy on early recurrences. Retrospective grouping was done as follows: no chemotherapy (NC) group (169 patients), mitomycin C (MMC) group (108), and another group (23). In all, 24 patients (16 in the NC, 6 in the MMC, and 2 in the other group) who died of other diseases within 5 years after surgery were excluded. Therefore, data on 153 individuals in the NC and 102 in the MMC group were analyzed. The recurrence rate in patients with Pen A type carcinoma, with a propensity toward an early recurrence in the liver, was 37.5% in the NC and 9.1% in the MMC group. Among 27 Pen A type patients, 3- and 4-year survival was significantly higher in those receiving MMC (100%) than in those given NC (62.5%). Recurrences in the liver occurred in 6/14 of the NC patients within 3 years after surgery, whereas there were no recurrences in 11 MMC patients. Thus, the postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with mitomycin-C has an inhibitory effect on early recurrence in patients with Pen A type early gastric carcinoma.