{"title":"Re: \"Endoscopic Features of Background Gastritis Associated With Remnant Gastric Cancer: A Multicenter Retrospective Study\".","authors":"Xiaoran Sun","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e37","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e37","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"480-481"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655679/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149129189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reply: Comments by Professor Xiaoran Sun on \"Endoscopic Features of Background Gastritis Associated With Remnant Gastric Cancer: A Multicenter Retrospective Study\".","authors":"Takuma Ohashi, Takeshi Kubota","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e38","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e38","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"482-483"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655671/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149129138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeong Ho Song, SeoYeon Wi, Yeojin Boo, Sung Hyun Park, Minah Cho, Yoo Min Kim, Sang-Yong Son, Jaehyuk Kim, Jun Chul Park, Hoon Hur, Woo Jin Hyung, Sang-Uk Han, Hyoung-Il Kim
{"title":"Comparison of Proximal Gastrectomy With Double-Tract Reconstruction and Total Gastrectomy for Stage II-III Upper Gastric Cancer: A Dual-Institutional Propensity Score-Matched Analysis.","authors":"Jeong Ho Song, SeoYeon Wi, Yeojin Boo, Sung Hyun Park, Minah Cho, Yoo Min Kim, Sang-Yong Son, Jaehyuk Kim, Jun Chul Park, Hoon Hur, Woo Jin Hyung, Sang-Uk Han, Hyoung-Il Kim","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e44","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e44","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Total gastrectomy (TG) is the standard treatment for stage II-III upper gastric cancer, whereas proximal gastrectomy is primarily used for early-stage disease. This study compared the oncologic and nutritional consequences, including anemia, vitamin B12 deficiency, and body composition changes, between proximal gastrectomy with double-tract reconstruction (PG-DTR) and TG.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>We retrospectively analyzed a prospectively maintained dual-institutional database of patients who underwent curative-intent PG-DTR or TG for stage II-III gastric cancer between 2015 and 2022. Machine learning-based propensity score matching balanced the clinicopathological variables. Perioperative outcomes, hematologic and nutritional parameters, computed tomography-based body composition, and survival were compared.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>After matching, 62 patient pairs were included. Complication rates were comparable between the groups. Five-year cumulative incidences of anemia (86.2% vs. 88.7%, P=0.507), iron replacement (48.7% vs. 58.3%, P=0.595), and vitamin B12 deficiency (8.9% vs. 22.3%, P=0.139) were similar. However, the 5-year cumulative incidence of vitamin B12 replacement was significantly lower after PG-DTR than after TG (46.4% vs. 95.4%, P<0.001). Longitudinal changes in body composition, body weight, hemoglobin level, albumin level, and prognostic nutritional index were similar between the groups. Five-year overall survival rates were 78.9% and 81.1% (P=0.801), and the 5-year recurrence-free survival rates were 73.0% and 78.2% (P=0.690) in the PG-DTR and TG groups, respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>PG-DTR showed no statistically significant differences in perioperative, nutritional, and oncologic outcomes compared with TG in this cohort. These findings should be interpreted cautiously because of the limited statistical power, and larger prospective studies are warranted.</p>","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"534-551"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655703/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149128687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hyung-Don Kim, Sungju Kim, Eileen J Shin, Jiyeon Lee, Jiwon Lee, Myungchul Lee, Jeongeun Shin, Min-Hee Ryu
{"title":"Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparison of Oral Paclitaxel (Liporaxel<sup>®</sup>) Versus Weekly Intravenous Paclitaxel in Advanced Gastric Cancer.","authors":"Hyung-Don Kim, Sungju Kim, Eileen J Shin, Jiyeon Lee, Jiwon Lee, Myungchul Lee, Jeongeun Shin, Min-Hee Ryu","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e47","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e47","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Intravenous (IV) paclitaxel is widely used in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. Liporaxel<sup>®</sup> is the first orally administered paclitaxel formulation and demonstrated non-inferiority to paclitaxel administered every 3 weeks in the phase III DREAM trial. As no head-to-head trial has compared Liporaxel<sup>®</sup> with the widely used weekly paclitaxel regimen in gastric cancer, this study aimed to compare their relative efficacy.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>This study utilized individual patient data from the DREAM trial and aggregate data for the weekly paclitaxel regimen from a systematic literature review. Given the absence of a common comparator, an unanchored matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) was performed for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) with weighting based on common and extended variables. Primary and sensitivity analyses were performed according to the effective sample size (ESS).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Matching was performed across 5 studies. Despite a reduction in the ESS, baseline patient characteristics remained similarly distributed after matching. In the two studies included in the primary analysis, the adjusted hazard ratios from the unanchored MAIC, based on common variables, were 0.95 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72-1.26) and 1.03 (95% CI, 0.81-1.29) for PFS, and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.69-1.28) and 1.06 (95% CI, 0.84-1.34) for OS. The results obtained using the extended variables and sensitivity analyses were consistent with the primary analysis.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The efficacy of Liporaxel<sup>®</sup> and the weekly IV paclitaxel regimen were comparable. This finding supports the previously established non-inferiority evidence and suggests Liporaxel<sup>®</sup> as a valid treatment option for advanced gastric cancer.</p>","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"573-584"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655691/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149129066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kenji Takeshita, Muneharu Fujisaki, Motohiro Shionozaki, Kazuhide Sato, Mizuki Fukuda, Naoko Fukushima, Yoshitaka Ishikawa, Yuta Takano, Fumiaki Yano, Ken Eto
{"title":"The CALLY Index for Unresectable or Recurrent Gastric Cancer Treated With Nivolumab: A Multicenter Retrospective Study.","authors":"Kenji Takeshita, Muneharu Fujisaki, Motohiro Shionozaki, Kazuhide Sato, Mizuki Fukuda, Naoko Fukushima, Yoshitaka Ishikawa, Yuta Takano, Fumiaki Yano, Ken Eto","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e46","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e46","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The C-reactive protein-albumin-lymphocyte (CALLY) index is a novel immuno-nutritional marker in various cancers. We investigated its prognostic value in patients with unresectable or recurrent gastric cancer who were treated with nivolumab monotherapy.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>This multicenter retrospective study included 126 patients treated with third- or later-line nivolumab monotherapy. The CALLY index was calculated as (Albumin × Lymphocyte Count)/(C-Reactive Protein × 10⁴) and dichotomized at 1.08. The operating characteristics of this cutoff were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic analysis for 1-year overall survival (OS). OS and progression-free survival (PFS) were evaluated.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The CALLY-low group exhibited a significantly shorter median OS (164 vs. 377 days; P=0.004) and median PFS (56 vs. 104 days; P<0.001) than the CALLY-high group. In multivariable models from which posttreatment immune-related adverse events were excluded, the CALLY index was an independent prognostic factor for both OS (hazard ratio [HR], 2.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.31-3.21; P=0.002) and PFS (HR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.33-3.02; P<0.001) after adjustment for clinically relevant factors.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The pretreatment CALLY index was an independent prognostic biomarker for both OS and PFS in patients with unresectable or recurrent gastric cancer receiving third- or later-line nivolumab monotherapy. By integrating the C-reactive protein levels, albumin levels, and lymphocyte counts, the CALLY index may serve as a practical tool for pretreatment risk stratification in this setting.</p>","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"598-612"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655675/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149129149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yingying Wu, Zhenxin Wang, Min Fu, Hong Zeng, Yuan Gu, Zhenbin Shen, Kuntang Shen, Yuehong Cui, Tianshu Liu, Yihong Sun, Zhaoqing Tang, Xuefei Wang
{"title":"Biological Redefinition of Oligometastatic Gastric Cancer Refines Surgical Risk Stratification.","authors":"Yingying Wu, Zhenxin Wang, Min Fu, Hong Zeng, Yuan Gu, Zhenbin Shen, Kuntang Shen, Yuehong Cui, Tianshu Liu, Yihong Sun, Zhaoqing Tang, Xuefei Wang","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e49","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e49","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The management of advanced gastric cancer (GC) follows a binary paradigm: surgery for localized disease versus palliative care for metastatic disease. Oligometastatic gastric cancer (OMGC) represents an intermediate state in which the role of surgery remains uncertain. Because current definitions of OMGC are based primarily on anatomic criteria and do not capture underlying biological heterogeneity, we developed the Tumor-Induced Perturbation score (TIPscore) to quantify systemic tumor-host perturbation and support biology-informed risk stratification.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>Patients with advanced GC were stratified into locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC), OMGC, and widely metastatic gastric cancer (WMGC) groups. Baseline serum samples from 107 patients were used to develop the TIPscore in the discovery cohort (LAGC=55, OMGC=22, WMGC=30), and post-treatment serum samples from 104 patients were used for longitudinal validation (LAGC=71, OMGC=30, WMGC=3). An independent temporal cohort of 147 patients with baseline serum samples was used for external validation (LAGC=105, OMGC=28, WMGC=14). Serum proteomic profiling was performed using the Olink platform, and the TIPscore was constructed by Elastic Net regression.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Three core proteins (IL-22RA1, HGF, and 4E-BP1) were incorporated into the TIPscore. The model positioned patients on a biological continuum of metastatic disease and showed consistent discriminatory performance across cohorts. The post-treatment TIPscore predicted 1-year overall survival in OMGC and may help stratify risk among patients with OMGC being considered for curative-intent surgery.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The TIPscore provides a serum-based, biologically grounded framework for refining OMGC stratification and informing surgical decision-making.</p><p><strong>Trial registration: </strong>Chinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR2500096665.</p>","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"613-633"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655681/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149128490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeesun Kim, Min Kyu Kang, Nisan Aryal, Kyoyoung Park, Jane Chungyoon Kim, Sa-Hong Kim, Ji-Hyeon Park, Do Joong Park, Hyuk-Joon Lee, Han-Kwang Yang, Deok-Seok Kim, Seong-Ho Kong
{"title":"Development of an Artificial Intelligence Platform for Surgical Tool Detection and Phase Recognition in Laparoscopic Distal Gastrectomy.","authors":"Jeesun Kim, Min Kyu Kang, Nisan Aryal, Kyoyoung Park, Jane Chungyoon Kim, Sa-Hong Kim, Ji-Hyeon Park, Do Joong Park, Hyuk-Joon Lee, Han-Kwang Yang, Deok-Seok Kim, Seong-Ho Kong","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e39","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e39","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Surgical tool detection and phase recognition are the foundational areas for objective surgical assessment and future integration with intelligent operative systems. We aimed to develop and validate an artificial intelligence (AI) model for automated surgical tool detection and phase recognition in laparoscopic distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>In this retrospective, single-center study, we included 93 annotated laparoscopic distal gastrectomy videos from Seoul National University Hospital. A You Only Look Once version 8 (YOLOv8) model was trained to detect 14 surgical instruments across 60,102 annotated images using a refined tip-focused annotation strategy. The surgical workflow was divided into 12 predefined phases. Tool presence inferred from the YOLOv8 output was structured and used as input for a bidirectional long short-term memory (bi-LSTM) network for temporal phase recognition. Performance was evaluated using the mean average precision (mAP), precision, recall, F1 score, and accuracy.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The YOLOv8 model achieved a 94% mAP at an intersection over union threshold of 0.50 (mAP50), with a precision >95% for recognizing frequently used tools. The bi-LSTM model achieved a precision of 82%, recall of 84%, F1 score of 83%, and accuracy of 85%. Phase prediction was the highest for clear anatomical transitions and lowest for visually ambiguous phases.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This AI-based framework demonstrated reliable performance in surgical tool detection and phase recognition. Using the YOLO-inferred tool as input to the bi-LSTM phase model improved robustness and scalability. This approach offers a foundation for real-time surgical guidance, quality benchmarking, and structured resident training in gastric cancer surgery.</p>","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"484-502"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655702/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149128731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ha-Jun Yoon, Tae-Se Kim, Hyuk Lee, Byung-Hoon Min, Yang Won Min, Jun Haeng Lee, Kyoung-Mee Kim, Soomin Ahn
{"title":"Clinical Implications of Histologic Heterogeneity in Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection Specimens for Differentiated-Type Early Gastric Cancer.","authors":"Ha-Jun Yoon, Tae-Se Kim, Hyuk Lee, Byung-Hoon Min, Yang Won Min, Jun Haeng Lee, Kyoung-Mee Kim, Soomin Ahn","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e45","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e45","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The clinical implications of histologic heterogeneity, defined as differentiated-type early gastric cancer (EGC) containing undifferentiated components, in endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) specimens remain unclear. We investigated the association of histologic heterogeneity and biopsy-detected poorly differentiated components with lymph node metastasis in differentiated-type EGC.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>This retrospective study included 858 patients who underwent gastrectomy after ESD for differentiated-type EGC. Histologic heterogeneity in ESD specimens and its association with clinicopathological features, including lymph node metastasis, were analyzed. In addition, 88 pre-treatment biopsy specimens were reviewed for the presence of poorly differentiated components.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Histologic heterogeneity was identified in 252 (29.4%) patients, and lymph node metastasis was detected in 46 (5.4%) patients. Histologic heterogeneity was significantly associated with higher frequencies of lymphatic invasion (73.4% vs. 50.8%, P<0.001) and lymph node metastasis (8.3% vs. 4.1%, P=0.013). Among patients with available biopsy specimens, poorly differentiated components identified on biopsy were observed only in lesions with histologic heterogeneity in ESD specimens and were associated with a higher frequency of lymph node metastasis (37.5% vs. 2.5%, P=0.005).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Histologic heterogeneity in ESD specimens was associated with adverse pathological features, including lymphatic invasion and lymph node metastasis. These findings support the detailed documentation of histologic heterogeneity in ESD pathology reports and minor poorly differentiated components in biopsy specimens to assist in risk stratification and individualized treatment planning for differentiated-type EGC.</p>","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"585-597"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655678/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149128700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hyoung-Il Kim, Hoseok Seo, Hoon Hur, Chang Min Lee, Sang-Hoon Ahn, Dong Jin Park, Yun-Suhk Suh, Oh Jeong, Sang-Yong Son, Mi Ran Jung, Young Suk Park, Dong-Wook Kim, Jeong Ho Song, Yoontaek Lee, Ji-Ho Park, Shin-Hoo Park, Sejin Lee, Seong-Ho Kong, Sun-Hwi Hwang, Jong Won Kim, Han Hong Lee
{"title":"Erratum: Safety and Efficacy of Reduced-Port Versus Conventional Laparoscopic Distal Gastrectomy for Early Gastric Cancer: A Multicenter, Randomized, Non-inferiority Trial (KLASS-12).","authors":"Hyoung-Il Kim, Hoseok Seo, Hoon Hur, Chang Min Lee, Sang-Hoon Ahn, Dong Jin Park, Yun-Suhk Suh, Oh Jeong, Sang-Yong Son, Mi Ran Jung, Young Suk Park, Dong-Wook Kim, Jeong Ho Song, Yoontaek Lee, Ji-Ho Park, Shin-Hoo Park, Sejin Lee, Seong-Ho Kong, Sun-Hwi Hwang, Jong Won Kim, Han Hong Lee","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e41","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e41","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This corrects the article on p. 437 in vol. 25, PMID: 40631473.</p>","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"634-636"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655670/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149129091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prognostic Value of Early Weight Gain in Patients With Stage IV Gastric Cancer Undergoing First-Line Combination Immunotherapy.","authors":"Kaihua Huang, Min Lai, Huiming Zhang, Huayuan Liang, Xiao Yan, Qingling Yu, Huilin Huang, Rou Zhong, Qing Xie, Xinru Liu, Zhiwei Li, Lina Yu, Hao Liu, Guoxin Li, Liying Zhao","doi":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e43","DOIUrl":"10.5230/jgc.2026.26.e43","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Conventional radiologic assessment using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 (RECIST 1.1) may not fully capture clinical responses during immunotherapy. Therefore, we investigated the association between early weight gain (WG) and prognosis in this population.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>We enrolled 268 consecutive patients with stage IV gastric cancer (GC) who received first-line combination immunotherapy. Data were obtained from a prospective clinical database. Cox regression and g-computation were used to quantify and visualize the associations between WG and progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The skeletal muscle index (SMI), subcutaneous fat index (SFI), and visceral fat index (VFI) at L3 were calculated using 3D Slicer.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>After a median follow-up of 29.7 months, 210 (78.3%) patients experienced disease progression and 185 (69.0%) died. The median overall survival (mOS) was 14.8 months, and the median progression-free survival (mPFS) was 7.2 months. The optimal cutoff value for WG was 4%, classifying patients into the WG ≥4% (n=87) and WG <4% (n=181) groups. WG ≥4% was associated with longer mOS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.225; P<0.001) and mPFS (HR, 0.449; P<0.001). WG ≥4% was also significantly associated with prolonged mOS in patients with stable disease (SD) (HR, 0.140; P<0.001) and progressive disease (PD) (HR, 0.045; P=0.003). Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed WG as an independent predictor of survival outcomes. SFI (r=0.34) and SMI (r=0.32) were moderately and positively correlated with OS.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>WG ≥4% is associated with better survival outcomes in patients with stage IV GC undergoing combination immunotherapy, even in those with SD or PD.</p>","PeriodicalId":56072,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Gastric Cancer","volume":"26 4","pages":"552-572"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655693/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149129224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}