[Gastric cancer: surgical results and survival]

From 1975 to 1984, 292 patients with gastric cancer were treated according to a prospective and standardized surgical protocol. This series included 195 men and 97 women, with an average age of 62.5 +/- 11 years (SD). In 20 patients (6.8%) surgery was not performed and 99 were considered unresectable at laparotomy. Gastric resection was performed in 173 (63.3%) (distal subtotal gastrectomy in 94 and total gastrectomy in 79). Operative mortality for subtotal gastrectomy was 3.1% and 6.3% for total gastrectomy. Early gastric cancer was found in 21 patients (none presented lymph node metastases). The cancer invaded the muscular layer in 18 (31% with lymph node metastases) and reached beyond the muscular layer in 134 patients (60.8% with lymph node metastases). The five year actuarial survival was 0% in patients who did not undergo gastric resection, 35.5% for those patients with tumor invading the serosal layer or beyond who were resected, 56.5% for those with invasion up to the muscular layer and 91.8% for patients with early gastric cancer. For those patients who underwent a curative resection, actuarial five year survival was 81%.