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Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant tumor types in the world and the majority of patients have already reached the advanced stage at the time of initial diagnosis, owing to the subtle symptoms of gastric cancer in the early stage and the low rate of screening in the population. Surgical resection is one of the main treatments for advanced gastric cancer; however, the efficacy of surgery is limited by factors such as low radical resection rate and high distant metastasis rate. A large number of clinical trials have indicated that neoadjuvant therapy (NAT), which consists of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and NAT combined with targeted therapy, may improve the therapeutic effect and prognosis of patients to different degrees. However, the benefit of NAT remains controversial due to the heterogeneity of clinical trials and gastric cancer itself. The present review summarizes the main research progress and key breakthrough of NAT for advanced gastric cancer and discusses its prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To evaluate the prognostic effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with local advanced gastric cancer. Methods We retrospectively analyzed prognosis in 191 patients with advanced gastric cancer, of whom 71 were treated with NAC and 120 received surgery only between February 2007 and July 2013. Postoperative complication rate was recorded. Survival by clinicopathological features, pathological T and N stages, and histopathological tumor regression was retrospectively compared between the two groups. Results According to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, none of the 71 patients in the NAC followed by surgery group showed complete response, 36 showed partial response, 25 had stable disease, and 10 had progressive disease. The chemotherapy response rate was 50.7%; the disease control rate was 85.9%. Grade 3/4 adverse events were seen in less than 20% patients, with acceptable toxicities. No difference was found in the overall postoperative complication rates between the two groups (7 versus 22 cases, P =0.18). Median survival time was significantly different, at 54 months in the NAC combined with surgery group and 25 months in the surgery-only group (P=0.025). Conclusion In patients with operable gastric adenocarcinomas, NAC can significantly improve overall survival without increasing surgical complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung cancer, particularly non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer mortality. Chemotherapy combined dendritic cells co-cultured with cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) immunotherapy has been applied in advanced NSCLC patients' treatment, but couldn't provide consistent beneficial results. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the efficiency and safety of combination therapy to promote the application. Methods: A literature search for randomized controlled trials of NSCLC was conducted in PubMed database. Before meta-analysis was performed, studies were evaluated heterogeneity. Pooled risk ratios (RRs) were estimated and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a fixed-effect model. Sensitivity analysis was also performed. Results: Six eligible trials were enrolled. Efficiency and safety of chemotherapy followed by DC-CIK immunotherapy (experimental group) and chemotherapy alone (control group) were compared. 1-year overall survival (OS) (P = 0.02) and progression free survival (PFS) (P = 0.005) in the experimental group were significantly increased compared with the control. Disease control rate (DCR) (P = 0.006) rose significantly in experimental group. However, no significant differences between the two groups were observed in 2-year OS (P = 0.21), 2-year PFS (P = 0.10), overall response rate (ORR) (P = 0.76) and partial response (PR) (P = 0.22). Temporary fever, anemia, leukopenia and nausea were the four major adverse events (AEs) treated by chemotherapy. The incidence of anemia, leukopenia and nausea in the experimental group was obviously lower than the control group. Temporary fever rate was higher in experimental group than that in the control, but could be alleviated by taking sufficient rest. Conclusions: Chemotherapy combined with DC-CIK immunotherapy showed superiority in DCR, 1-year OS and PFS, and no more AEs appeared, however, there was no significant improvement in ORR, PR, 2-year OS and PFS. As a whole, the combination therapy is safer but modest in efficacy for advanced NSCLC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]