Background: The benefits of primary tumor resection in metastatic disease remains a matter of debate. Existing data are almost exclusively limited to results from retrospective analyses. Data from prospective, randomized trials are currently not available.
Aim: The results from two prospective observational studies involving gastric and rectal cancer patients are presented and discussed in the context of the available literature.
Method: Based on data collected within the prospective quality assurance studies on gastric and rectal cancer conducted by the Institute for Quality Assurance in Surgery at Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany, the long-term outcome after palliative primary tumor resection in patients with International Union Against Cancer (UICC) stage IV rectal cancer (2005-2008, n = 2046) and metastatic gastric cancer (2007-2009, n = 687) was analyzed and compared to published data.
Results: The median survival time following palliative primary tumor resection of UICC stage IV rectal cancer in the patients analyzed was 20 months. In patients with hepatic metastases undergoing metastasectomy the median survival was 38 months. This increased to 58 months for patients with lymph node negative primary tumors. In metastatic gastric cancer patients undergoing palliative (R2) gastric resection and also patients not undergoing surgery showed a prognostic benefit from palliative chemotherapy; however, the median survival time was significantly prolonged if palliative chemotherapy was preceded by resection of the primary tumor (11 versus 7 months, p < 0.001).
Discussion: Together with previously published data, the results from the two observational studies on rectal and gastric cancer presented here suggest a prognostic benefit from palliative resection of the primary tumor in metastatic disease.
Keywords: Chemotherapy; Gastric cancer; Observational study; Palliative tumor resection; Rectal cancer.