Association of intensifying supportive care with improved survival in patients with gastric cancer with malignant ascites.

Authors

John Karalis

John D Karalis

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX

John D Karalis , Michelle R Ju , Rachel Feig , Raechelle Estrella , Morgan F Pettigrew , Rodrigo Alterio , Andres A Abreu , Emile Farah , Tarek Sawas , Nina Niu Sanford , Aravind Sanjeevaiah , Scott Reznik , Suntrea Hammer , Matthew R. Porembka , Sam C. Wang

Organizations

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, Duke University Hospital, Durham, NC, Parkland Health & Hospital System, Dallas, TX

Research Funding

Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Background: Gastric cancer patients with malignant ascites often have poor functional status and malnutrition that precludes receipt of systemic therapies. Thus, these patients have a very poor prognosis. Beginning in 2019, our multidisciplinary gastric cancer disease-oriented team implemented a more aggressive supportive care plan for gastric cancer patients with malignant ascites. The initiative included measures such as supplemental enteral nutrition, ascites drainage, and initiation of chemotherapy on an inpatient basis. We compared outcomes for gastric cancer patients who presented with synchronous malignant ascites treated before and after the implementation of the care plan. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of our institutional database to identify patients diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma and synchronous malignant ascites between 2010-2022. We compared survival between patients diagnosed from 2010-2018, which will be referred to as the historical control era and patients diagnosed from 2019-2022, which will be called the aggressive supportive care era. Results: 54 patients were included in our analysis; 31 patients were treated in the historical control time frame and 23 patients treated during the aggressive supportive care era. Demographic, clinical, and pathologic characteristics were similar between groups. 3% of historical controls received supplemental tube feeds at diagnosis as compared to 30% of the aggressive supportive care cohort (p=0.008). 3% of historical controls received their first cycle of chemotherapy in the inpatient setting versus 39% of patients treated during the aggressive supportive care era (p=0.001). The median number of chemotherapy cycles received was 5 among historical controls and 9.5 among aggressive supportive care era patients (p = 0.02). There was no difference in the number of days spent as an inpatient between the two groups. The median overall survival for historical control patients was 5.4 months as compared to 10.4 months for patients treated during aggressive supportive care era (p=0.035). Conclusions: Gastric cancer patients with synchronous malignant ascites treated during a timeframe when our multidisciplinary team implemented more aggressive supportive care measures had improved OS as compared to historic controls.Our results suggest that aggressive supportive measures for these patients with highly challenging clinical issues and poor prognosis can prolong survival. Specifically, initiation of chemotherapy in the inpatient setting and supplemental nutrition should be considered for patients at high risk for treatment intolerance.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2024 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session A: Cancers of the Esophagus and Stomach and Other Gastrointestinal Cancers

Track

Esophageal and Gastric Cancer,Other GI Cancer

Sub Track

Quality of Care/Quality Improvement

Citation

J Clin Oncol 42, 2024 (suppl 3; abstr 294)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2024.42.3_suppl.294

Abstract #

294

Poster Bd #

D14

Abstract Disclosures