Factors influencing survival in 242 cases of primary gastric carcinoma

Two hundred and forty-two patients who underwent curative surgery for primary gastric cancer between 1965 and 1979 were reviewed, and the influence on survival of the type of surgical treatment, primary tumor location, operative mortality, and stage of disease was analyzed. Operative mortality was significantly increased in patients with multicentric primaries compared to all other sites (P less than .001) and in patients undergoing total gastrectomy versus subtotal gastric resection (P less than 0.001). Stage III-IV lesions had a significantly worse prognosis than stage I-II tumors (P less than .001). Our data confirm that early diagnosis could lead to increased survival.