Perioperative chemotherapy versus adjuvant chemotherapy strategies in resectable gastric and gastroesophageal cancer: A Markov decision analysis.

Background: Perioperative chemotherapy has been shown to improve overall survival (OS) for operable gastric and gastroesophageal cancer. However, optimal sequence of surgery and chemotherapy has not been clearly identified. Markov models are useful for analyzing the outcomes of different treatment strategies in the absence of adequately powered randomized clinical trials.