IPEC-GCPreoperative Chemotherapy With Weekly Cisplatin, Epirubicin and Paclitaxel (Intensified PET) in Patients With Locally Gastric Cancer : a Phase II Proof-of-concept Study.

The IPEC-GC study is a proof-of-concept study evaluating the efficacy and feasibility of PET regimen in 61 patients with lower oesophagus, oesophagus junction or gastric carcinoma. Preoperative chemotherapy include eight weekly preoperative cycles of cisplatin (30mg/m2), epirubicin (50 mg/m2) and paclitaxel (90 mg/m2)with a break of one week without chemotherapy between cycle 4 and 5. Surgery is performed within 4-6 weeks after the end of the last cycle of chemotherapy. Primary endpoint of this trial is the curative resection rate (=R0). R0 must be higher than the 79% achieved in previous published studies. Response rate, histologic response rate (Becker score), progression-free survival, overall survival, impact of complete response in survival and dose-density are secondary endpoints. For an ancillary study, tumors (biopsies and operative specimens) and sera will be collected to identify biomarkers correlated with treatment efficacy. This study is carried out by the Besançon University Hospital and were approved by the independent Est-II ethics committee and by the French National Authority for Health: AFSSAPS.