The Role Of Biomarkers In Predicting Neoadjuvant Treatment Response In Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Gastric cancer remains an important health problem in terms of both its incidence and mortality. The standard treatment for non-metastatic locally advanced disease is neoadjuvant chemotherapy, followed by surgery. In this study, we investigated the role of the HALP score and other immunonutritional biomarkers in predicting the response to treatment in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. A retrospective evaluation was conducted on patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer and were treated and followed up at the Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Faculty of Medicine, Dursun Odabaşı Medical Center, and Van Training and Research Hospital between 2015 and 2024. In this study, the following parameters were examined: pretreatment hemogram parameters, tumor biomarkers, disease stage at the time of diagnosis, and tumor invasion characteristics. The objective of this study was to ascertain the relationship between these parameters and response to neoadjuvant treatment. A total of 183 patients were included in the study, of which 62 (33.9%) were female and 121 (66.1%) were male. A statistically significant correlation was identified between the treatment response status of patients and the type of surgery, neural invasion, vascular invasion, TNM classification, HER2 status, and neoadjuvant regimen status (p < 0.05). Our findings indicate that age, neural invasion, vascular invasion, HER2 status, and chemotherapy regimen, among clinicopathological features, and tumor markers (CEA and CA 19-9), white blood cell, lymphocyte, and monocyte counts, among laboratory values, can predict the response in neoadjuvant patients. © 2025, Yuzuncu Yil Universitesi Tip Fakultesi. All rights reserved.