Comparison Of Efficacy And Safety Of Second-Line Palliative Chemotherapy With Paclitaxel Plus Raltitrexed And Paclitaxel Alone In Patients With Metastatic Gastric Adenocarcinoma: A Randomized Phase Ii Trial.

4054 Background: Paclitaxel is a microtubule stabilizing agent that has been the standard second line chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. This study was designed to find out the clinical outcome of paclitaxel plus raltitrexed regimen as second line treatment in MGC patients. Methods: In an open, randomized, multi centers phase II clinical trial , 148 patients were randomly assigned and treated with either RP (raltitrexed 3 mg/m2 d1 and paclitaxel 135mg/m2 d1,3w) or P (paclitaxel 135mg/m2 d1,3w) as second-line palliative chemotherapy. The primary endpoint is PFS, secondary endpoint is ORR, OS and safety. Results: In 148 randomly assigned and treated patients (RP = 73; P = 75), the majority of patients were males (94 vs. 54). Progression free survival has a tendency to be prolonged with RP versus P (2.7m vs. 1.7m, p = 0.148). Overall survival also has a tendency to be prolonged with RP versus P (10.2m vs. 6.1m, p = 0.140). Overall response rate was equal with RP versus P (6.8% vs.4.0%, p = 0.72). DCR in the RP group was 56.2%, P group was 36.0%. Grade 3 to 4 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 36.2% (RP) v 28.2% (P) of patients. Frequent grade 3 to 4 toxicities for RP v P were: neutropenia (11.0% v 4.0%), anemia (1.4% v 4.0%), thrombocytopenia (1.4% v 5.3%), and all grade peripheral neurotoxicity (12.3% v 17.3%),all grade elevated aminotransferase (27.4% v 14.1%). Subgroup analysis shows if the disease combined with ascites or peritoneal involved , OS of RP regimen is more longer (p = 0.05). Conclusions: Second-line palliative chemotherapy with paclitaxel plus raltitrexed provides a tendency to prolong PFS and OS, and the patients with ascites or peritoneal involved may get benifits from combined chemotherapy, which needs to be confirmed by larger sample studies. Clinical trial information: NCT02072317.