[Prognostic factors in gastric cancer]

A total of 5,480 cases of gastric cancer was subjected to the analysis of main prognostic factors in gastric cancer. The uppermost factor which affected the prognosis of gastric cancer patients was the curability of surgery. Five year survival rates were 72.7% for the absolute curative cases, 33.6% for relative curative cases, and 13.8% for relative non-curative cases. None of the patients, who had absolute non-curative surgery, survived more than five years. Curability of surgery depended on the extent of cancer spread such as liver metastasis, peritoneal dissemination, remote lymphatic spread and continuous infiltration of adjacent organs. Gross and histological tumor types were important for the destination of cancer spread: localized, and well differentiated types tended to hematogenous metastasis. Infiltrating, and undifferentiated typestended to peritoneal dissemination.