2twice daily days 1–14 q3w) for 8 cycles or surgery alone. The primary endpoint was 3-year disease-free survival. The clinical cut-off date for the prospectively planned final 5-year efficacy analysis was 22 November 2012. Results: At data cut-off, 103 (20%) patients in the XELOX group and 141 (27%) patients in the surgery alone group had died. This represented a 34% reduction in the risk of death with XELOX versus surgery alone (hazard ratio 0.66, 95% CI 0.51–0.85; p = 0.0015 by stratified Cox regression analysis). The 5-year overall survival rate was 78% in the XELOX group and 69% in the surgery alone group (p = 0.0029, log-rank test unstratified). 76 (15%) patients in the XELOX group and 135 (26%) patients in the surgery alone group received subsequent, non-protocol-specified anticancer therapies after progression of disease. In the analysis of disease-free survival, 139 (26.7%) patients in the XELOX group and 203 (39.4%) patients in the surgery alone group had relapsed, developed a new gastric cancer or died. This represented a 42% reduction in the risk of an event with XELOX versus surgery alone (hazard ratio 0.58, 95% CI 0.47– 0.72; p < 0.0001 by stratified Cox regression analysis). The 5-year disease-free survival rate was 68% in the XELOX group and 53% in the surgery alone group (p < 0.0001, log-rank test unstratified). Conclusion: The final analysis of the CLASSIC trial, after a median follow-up of 5 years, supports the findings from the primary analysis performed 2 years earlier. Adjuvant XELOX after curative D2 gastrectomy improves overall survival compared with surgery alone and should be considered as a standard treatment option for patients with operable gastric cancer.