Sexual difference matters: Females with high microsatellite instability show increased survival after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in gastric cancer

Meike Kohlruss, Katja Ott, Bianca Grosser, Moritz Jesinghaus, Julia Slotta-Huspenina, Alexander Novotny, Alexander Hapfelmeier, Thomas Schmidt, Matthias M. Gaida, Wilko Weichert, Gisela Keller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

We aimed to investigate patients with gastric/gastro-esophageal adenocarcinomas for sex-and age-specific differences regarding overall survival (OS) and response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (CTx) under consideration of tumor specific molecular subtypes. Overall, 717 patients were analyzed, including 426 patients treated with and 291 treated without neoadjuvant CTx. Microsatel-lite instability (MSI) and Epstein-Barr virus positivity (EBV+) were determined previously. Females demonstrated a significantly increased OS (p = 0.035), particularly in the subgroup treated with CTx (p = 0.054). No significant differences regarding age were found. In the molecular subgroups, no sex-related differences were observed in the non-CTx group. However in the CTx group, females with MSI-high (H) tumors showed the best OS (p = 0.043), followed by the male MSI-H (p = 0.198) and female MSS (p = 0.114) compared to the male MSS group as reference. The interaction between sex and MSI in this patient group was noticeable (p = 0.053) and was included as a relevant factor in multivariable analyses. In conclusion, our results show an effect of sex on OS in gastric/gastro-esophageal cancer specifically for patients treated with neoadjuvant CTx. The superior survival of women with MSI-H tumors after neoadjuvant CTx implies that combined consideration of these factors could contribute to an individualized treatment of the patients.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1048
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalCancers
Volume13
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 2021

Keywords

  • Adenocarcinoma
  • Age
  • Gastric
  • Gastroesophageal junction
  • Microsatellite instability
  • Molecular subtype
  • Neoadjuvant chemotherapy
  • Prognosis
  • Sex

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