Effect of Adjuvant Chemotherapy Cycles on Patients With Node-negative Gastric Cancer Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Inclusion Criteria:

• (1) preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy; (2) primary gastric adenocarcinoma,diagnosed by gastroscopic pathology findings before neoadjuvant chemotherapy incomplete pathological remission (pCR) cases or via postoperative pathology findings inall other instances; (3) absence of distant metastases in the liver, lungs, orabdominal cavity, as confirmed by preoperative chest radiography or chest computedtomography (CT), abdominal ultrasonography, abdominal CT, and other imaging; (4)radical gastric cancer surgery (R0) and D2 lymph node dissection; and (5)postoperative pathologic verification of no lymph node metastasis (i.e., lymphnode-negative).

Exclusion Criteria:

• (1) preoperative radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy, (2) discovery of distantmetastases preoperatively or intraoperatively, (3) coexistence of other malignanttumors, (4) residual gastric cancer, and (5) perioperative patient mortality.