Gastric cancer: correlation between clinicopathological factors and survival of patients (III)

The purpose of this study was to identify the clinicopathological factors that influence the prognosis of patients having undergone surgery for gastric cancer. The analysis of the potential prognosis factors has included in this study parameters concerning the patient (sex, age), as well as parameters related with the tumor (histological type according to the WHO classification; degree of tumor differentiation; tumor location; stage of disease; pT and pM parameters according to the TNM classification of AJCC/UICC).

From the total number of 265 patients (186 men and 79 women) diagnosed with gastric cancer in the period 1998-2002, 61 operated patients were selected. On this group, we performed a prospective study regarding the evolution and aggressiveness of gastric cancer, on a duration of 5 years. Survival time was calculated from the month of the surgical intervention until the month of death or confirmation of survival, and survival rate was represented by the percentage of survivals at the end of the observed interval (in years and months).

The studied group consisted of 61 patients (43 men and 18 women), with ages between 30 and 80 (average age = 59.34 years). According to the maximum level of tumor invasion we identified: pTis - one case (1.6%); pT1 - four cases (6.6%); pT2 - nine cases (14.7%); pT3 - 17 cases (27.9%); most gastric cancers were included in the pT4 category (49.2%). We identified 43 gastric carcinomas with metastases in regional lymph nodes (70.5% of the cases). According to the number of lymph nodes involved: pN0 - 18 cases (29.5%); pN1 - 16 cases (26.2%); pN2 - 23 cases (37.7%); pN3 - four cases (6.6%). Distance synchronous metastases were present in 14 gastric carcinomas (pM1 - 23% of the cases), nine cases with hepatic metastases and five cases with distance peritoneal disseminations. Classification of gastric carcinomas: we identified one single case listed in the 0 stage, three cases in the IA stage, five cases in the IB stage, seven cases in the II stage, 11 cases in the IIIA stage, eight cases in the IIIB stage, and 26 cases in the IV stage. From the total of carcinomas, stage IV consisted of the greatest number of tumors, representing 42.6%. We generally remarked the increase of the number of cases in advanced stages.

In the studied group, we noted a great number of gastric carcinomas diagnosed in stages T3 and T4 (77.1% of cases). Cardial tumor locations and gastric stump locations, as well as "signet-ring" cell and undifferentiated carcinomas prove to be aggressive, being diagnosed in advanced stages. 70.5% of gastric neoplasms presented lymph node metastases, most cases representing pN2 tumors (37.7%). 23% of neoplasms studied presented distance metastases at the time of diagnosis. We noted a significant correlation between the degree of tumor differentiation and the level of invasion, as well as the presence of distance and lymph node metastases. Survival at 5 years of patients included in the study was correlated significantly with the level of tumor invasion, the presence of lymph node and distance metastases, and the TNM stage.