Dr Yuan on 3-Year Data for Perioperative Toripalimab/Chemo in Gastric/GEJ Cancer

“Immunotherapy plus chemotherapy [demonstrated] superior EFS and OS [compared with chemotherapy alone] within patients with locally advanced gastric cancer.”

Shuqiang Yuan, MD, PhD, professor and associate chief surgeon at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, detailed the most important takeaways from 3-year follow up data from the phase 2 NEOSUMMIT-01 trial (NCT04250948), which were presented at the 2026 Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium. The trial investigated perioperative toripalimab-tpzi (Loqtorzi) plus chemotherapy compared with perioperative chemotherapy alone in patients with locally advanced gastric or gastroesophageal cancer.

Yuan started with an overview of efficacy data reported from the trial, noting that toripalimab plus chemotherapy yielded superior event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with chemotherapy alone. Findings showed that the 3-year EFS rate for patients who received the toripalimab combination (n = 54) was 74.7% (95% CI, 63.6%-87.7%) vs 56.2% (95% CI, 43.3%-73.0%) for patients who received chemotherapy alone (n = 45). The median EFS was not evaluable (NE; 95% CI, NE-NE) in the toripalimab arm vs 38.2 months (95% CI, 27.2-NE) in the control arm (stratified HR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.27-0.95; log-rank P = .044).

Furthermore, patients in the toripalimab arm achieved a 3-year OS rate of 81.3% (95% CI, 71.4%-92.4%) compared with 72.2% (95% CI, 61.2%-85.2%; P = .036) for patients in the chemotherapy alone arm; the median OS was NE (95% CI, NE-NE) in both arms (HR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.21-0.95; P = .036).

Yuan then built upon the previously disclosed EFS and OS benefits by highlighting how these benefits were maintained among patients who were in the mismatch repair–proficient (pMMR) population. Three-year EFS rates were 75.5% and 53.4% among patients who received toripalimab plus chemotherapy (n = 47) and chemotherapy alone (n.= 46), respectively (HR 0.47; 95% CI, 0.23-0.95; P = .035). Additionally, the respective 3-year OS rates for patients with pMMR disease were 80.6% vs 71.7% (HR 0.43; 95% CI, 0.20-0.95; P = .036).

As the discussion winded down, Yuan stressed how the combination of toripalimab plus chemotherapy reduced recurrence of peritoneal metastasis among patients. Peritoneal metastasis occurred in 13% of patients who received toripalimab plus chemotherapy whereas they occurred in 26.9% of patients who received chemotherapy alone (P = .034). This reduction is significant since many patients with locally advanced gastric cancer often experience peritoneal metastasis, Yuan noted.