Intraoperative corticosteroid administration for resectable gastric cancer: a multicenter, randomized, open-label, phase II/III study.

[BACKGROUND] Excessive surgical stress induces inflammatory cytokine release, negatively impacting prognosis in patients with malignancies. This study aimed to determine whether the anti-inflammatory effect of a corticosteroid (CS) would improve prognosis when administered intraoperatively to patients with resectable gastric cancer.

[METHODS] In this multicenter, randomized, open-label, phase II/III study, patients with cStage II-III gastric cancer were randomized to CS administration or non-administration (control) groups. Patients in the CS group received 5 mg/kg of methylprednisolone just before the skin incision during surgery. The primary endpoints were the highest postoperative serum level of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the phase II portion, and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in the phase III portion.

[RESULTS] Between December 2016 and February 2019, 410 patients were enrolled. In the phase II portion, CRP was significantly lower in the CS group than in the control group (mean, 10.7 vs 14.3 mg/dL, respectively; P = 0.009). In the phase III portion, 3-year RFS rates in the CS (n = 202) and control (n = 204) groups were 67.2% and 63.0%, respectively, indicating no significant difference (hazard ratio, 0.807 [95% confidence interval, 0.590-1.105]; log-rank P = 0.182). Subgroup analysis showed that both histological type and clinical stage had significant interactions with RFS, suggesting a potential survival benefit of CS administration in patients with differentiated histological-type or cStage III gastric cancer.

[CONCLUSIONS] Intraoperative CS administration mitigated postoperative CRP elevation but did not result in significantly improved survival in patients with cStage II-III gastric cancer. The study is registered with UMIN-CTR, number UMIN000024465.