The role of chemotherapy in patients with stage IB gastric adenocarcinoma: a real-world competing risk analysis

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the potential effect of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients diagnosed with stage IB gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC). METHOD: A total of 1727 patients were included in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2004 to 2015 and divided into the chemotherapy and no-chemotherapy groups. Then, the methods of Kaplan-Meier analysis, propensity score matching (PSM), and competing risk analysis were implemented. RESULTS: After PSM, no significant difference was found in the chemotherapy and no-chemotherapy groups in overall survival (OS) (p=0.4) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) (p=0.12) in survival curves. The competing risk analysis presented that the 5-year cumulative incidence of cancer-specific death (CSD) was significantly lower in patients receiving chemotherapy (11.5% vs. 20.8%, p=0.007), while no significant discrepancy was observed in other causes of death (OCD) in both groups (10.6% vs. 10.9%, p=0.474). Multivariable competing risks regression models presented a significant correlation between chemotherapy and CSD (HR, 0.51; 95%CI, 0.31–0.82; p=0.007). CONCLUSION: The stage IB GAC patients can benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy based on this competing risk analysis. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12957-022-02591-5.