Chronic advanced gastric cancer: clinicopathologic analysis of survival data

Patients with advanced gastric cancer who survived 5 years or more were studied. They were divided into 2 groups: 31 who later died of their disease (chronic patients) and 33 who were apparently cured (cured patients). Each survivor was matched with a patient who died within 5 years (control patients). The clinical and pathologic features of each group were compared. The 5-year survivors were easily distinguished from the controls by histologic stage, size of neoplasm, intratumoral eosinophil counts, extent of fibrosis; and by most histologic classifications. Chronic patients resembled cured patients in mean age (56 years), stage, size, site, percentage with lymphatic and neural invasion, eosinophil counts, extent of fibrosis, and characteristics in most histologic classifications. Chronic cancers differed from cured cancers by having less venous invasion, fewer solid tumors, more mucinous carcinomas, a lesser proportion of intestinal to diffuse cancers (World Health Organization), and more intracellular mucin production (Goseki). Chronic cancers were lower stage and smaller with less lymphatic, venous, and neural invasion than controls. Their superior overall survival time was largely because of longer progression-free survival. We conclude that chronic advanced gastric cancer patients differ both from cured patients and control patients. The use of pathologic features in addition to the standard Lauren classification better separated the chronic cancers from the cured cancers and showed differences in behavior between histologic types.