New Approaches to Chemotherapy in Gastric Cancer: The DoGE Study

The Grey Area in Gastric Cancer Treatment - When it comes to treating advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, doctors often recommend a combination of docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil (DCF) as the first-line treatment. But there's a big issue - the harsh side effects make it hard for patients to manage. The DoGE study, a multi-center phase II trial, recently explored two different ways to administer this cocktail of drugs. One group received weekly doses of DCF (arm 1), while the other got the same drugs every two weeks (arm 2). Neither group was allowed to use prophylactic granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), which helps boost white blood cell count. The goal was to see how these methods impacted the rate of severe infections within the first six weeks of treatment (early febrile neutropenia or EFN).Out of the 106 patients included, the results showed that the weekly group (arm 1) had EFN rates of 9. 5% and 17% within the early and overall periods, respectively. The every-two-week group (arm 2) fared a bit better with 5. 9% and 8% rates. When it came to serious side effects, both groups had high numbers, with neutropenia leading the pack in both arms. The study also looked at how long patients lived without their disease getting worse (progression-free survival) and their overall survival. Arm 1 clocked in at 5. 1 months and 8. 2 months, respectively, while arm 2 saw slightly better results at 5. 2 months and 11. 9 months. These findings suggest that changing the way we give these drugs can lower the risk of severe infections and might even be more convenient for patients. It’s a step in the right direction, but more research is needed to fully understand these new approaches.