Cisplatin-Capecitabine vs Oxaliplatin-Capecitabine: Comparison of Outcomes in Advanced Gastric Carcinoma Patients

Introduction: Chemotherapy is the primary therapeutic choice for advanced gastric cancer. Different types of medicine combinations are can be used for chemotherapy treatment, but oxaliplatin is one of the more common ones, used to treat metastasized cancer. But recently, cisplatin has shown similar outcome, while costing less for the patients and the hospital. The goal of this study was to assess the effectiveness of cisplatin-capecitabine versus oxaliplatin-capecitabine in treating advanced gastric cancer by measuring disease response and toxicity levels. Methods: This Quasi-Experimental study was conducted at the Department of Oncology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The study duration was 1 year, from February 2021 to March 2022. During this period, a total of 64 cases of advanced gastric cancer were divided in two equal groups, Arm A who had received cisplatin capecitabine, and Arm B who received oxaliplatin capecitabine. Result: In Arm A, 18 (56.3%) patients exhibited partial response (PR), whereas 15 (46.9%) patients in Arm B showed PR. Stable diseases (SD) were also reported in both arms (18.8% in arm A and 21.9% in arm B). There were 8 (25.0%) cases of progressive disease (PD) in Arm A and 10 (31.3%) cases in Arm B. The most prevalent toxicities in both arms were vomiting, diarrhea, anemia, neutropenia, oral mucositis, paresthesia, hand-foot syndrome, and renal toxicity. There were no statistically significant variations in outcomes between the two arms (p-value > 0.05). Conclusion: In advanced gastric cancer, the Cisplatin-Capecitabine regimen is equally effective as Oxaliplatin-Capecitabine, and there was no significant difference between the presenting toxic effects. As the Cisplatin-Capecitabine regimen is less costly than the combination of Oxaliplatin-Capecitabine, and shows similar outcomes in terms of response and toxicity, it is a valid alternative choice of medicine for patients who are unable to afford an .........