Clinical and prognostic aspects of gastric carcinoma in the elderly

The aim of the present study was to analyze the influence of various factors on the prognosis for elderly patients with gastric carcinoma. Forty-eight patients aged > or =65 years admitted to Padova General Hospital were divided into two groups by age (<75 or >75 years). They all had a histologically confirmed diagnosis of gastric adenocarcinoma. Information on their clinicopathological characteristics was collected from the Padova Hospital medical records. On univariate analysis, significant prognostic factors in the two age groups were gender, stage, histotype (Lauren's intestinal type), Charlson index, and type of surgery (curative resection, palliative resection, and no surgery). On multivariate analysis, independent prognostic factors were the Charlson index, tumor stage, and age group. The 52-month survival rate was 72.7% for females and 12.5% for males for patients > or =75 years (P = 0.01), while for the whole series of patients it was 67.5% for females and 29.9% for males (P = 0.003). The 17-month survival rate was 55.6% for surgically treated patients and 0% for the untreated cases in stage 4 (P = 0.03). Gastric cancer should be treated with conventional surgery even in the very elderly, since the survival rate for this age group does not differ significantly from the figures for younger patients.