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 in complete pathological remission (pCR) cases or via postoperative pathology findings in all other instances; (3) absence of distant metastases in the liver, lungs, or abdominal cavity, as confirmed by preoperative chest radiography or chest computed tomography (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., lymph node-negative). Exclusion Criteria: * (1) preoperative radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy, (2) discovery of distant metastases preoperatively or intraoperatively, (3) coexistence of other malignant tumors, (4) residual gastric cancer, and (5) perioperative patient mortality.