Single centre experience with conversion surgery for advanced and metastatic gastric cancer in Slovakia

Conversion surgery (CS) following systemic chemotherapy (SCT) has been suggested as a promising strategy for improving prognosis of patients with advanced gastric carcinoma (GC). The evidence, however, comes mostly from small-scale studies. Moreover, controversy exists over the criteria for selecting patients for SCT. We retrospectively analyzed 123 patients treated between 2007 and 2023. Thirty-one underwent CS, 44 received primary radical surgery (R0) with adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT), and 48 received surgical or palliative treatment. Survival rates and predictors of successful conversion were assessed. Median survival for R0 + ACT (30.4 months, 95%CI: 20.9-45.0) was non-significantly higher than SCT + R0 (19.4 months, 95%CI: 10.3-40.1; P = 0.2353). Successful downstaging after SCT was observed in 54.8% of CS patients. This group of SCT responders had significantly lower laboratory markers CEA, NLR and PLR (P-value of 0.019; 0.036 and 0.029, respectively). Both successful and failed conversion groups had significantly longer survival than group with palliative treatment (16.0 months, 95%CI: 8.4-19.1 vs. 7.4 months, 95%CI: 5.3-9.9; P = 0.0003). Multivariable analysis confirmed significantly lowered hazard and prolonged overall survival in CS vs. palliative treatments after adjusting for age and stage differences (P = 0.0014). Conversion therapy improves short-term survival and offers potential for long-term survival in select stage IV GC patients.