OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness and safety of treatment consisting of 
extending chemotherapy (ECT) with capecitabine following capecitabine plus 
oxaliplatin (CAPOX) chemotherapy for stage 3 gastric carcinoma (GC) after D2 
gastrectomy.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this retrospective study, we included 214 patients with 
stage 3 GC who underwent D2 gastrectomy between January 2012 and April 2014. The 
CAPOX regimen chemotherapy was administrated to all of the patients as adjuvant 
therapy. The CAPOX regimen consisted of capecitabine (1000 mg/m2, in 2 divided 
doses for 14 d) and oxaliplatin (130 mg/m2 given on Day 1), repeated every 21 d 
for 8 cycles. Following CAPOX chemotherapy, 102 of these patients received 
extending chemotherapy (the ECT group) with capecitabine, whereas 112 patients 
(the control group) received no ECT. The ECT consisted of capecitabine (1000 
mg/m2, in 2 divided doses for 14 d), repeated every 21 d for 8 cycles at most. 
The chemotherapy was discontinued if unacceptable toxicity or disease 
progression occurred or upon the request of the patient. All cases were followed 
up, and overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and toxicities 
were compared.
RESULTS: The ECT group exhibited a distinctly higher 5-year OS (p=0.0468) and 
RFS (p=0.0483) than those of the control group. The incidence of hand-foot 
syndrome was markedly greater in the ECT group (p=0.0043). No toxicity-related 
death occurred.
CONCLUSIONS: Extending chemotherapy with capecitabine following the CAPOX 
regimen chemotherapy provides significant survival benefit for stage 3 GC after 
D2 gastrectomy.