Patterns of relapse in patients with localized gastric adenocarcinoma who had surgery with or without adjunctive therapy: costs and effectiveness of surveillance.

Purpose: After therapy of localized gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) patients, the costs of surveillance, relapse patterns, and possibility of salvage are unknown.

Materials And Methods: We identified 246 patients, who after having a negative peritoneal staging, received therapy (any therapy which included surgery) and were surveyed (every 3-6 months in the first 3 years, then yearly; ∼10 CTs and ∼7 endoscopies per patient). We used the 2016 Medicare dollars reimbursed as the "costs" for surveillance.

Results: Common features were: Caucasians (57%), men (60%), poorly differentiated histology (76%), preoperative chemotherapy (74%), preoperative chemoradiation (59%), and had surgery (100%). At a median follow-up of 3.7 years (range, 0.1 to 18.3), the median overall survival (OS) was 9.2 years (95% CI, 6.0 to 11.2). Tumor grade ( = 0.02), p/yp stage ( < 0.001), % residual GAC ( = 0.05), the R status ( = 0.01), total gastrectomy ( = 0.001), and relapse type ( = 0.02) were associated with OS. Relapse occurred in 79 (32%) patients (only 8% were local-regional) and 90% occurred within 36 months of surgery. P/yp stage ( < 0.001) and total gastrectomy ( = 0.01) were independent prognosticators for OS in the multivariate analysis. Only 1 relapsed patient had successful salvage therapy. The estimated reimbursement for imaging studies and endoscopies was $1,761,221.91 (marked underestimation of actual costs).

Conclusions: The median OS of localized GAC patients was excellent with infrequent local-regional relapses. Rigorous surveillance had a low yield and high "costs". Our data suggest that less frequent surveillance intervals and limiting expensive investigations to symptomatic patients may be warranted.