[Arguments for regional centralized treatment of stomach cancer. A statistical study of national results]

An analysis was made of therapeutic results obtained from 6,220 cases of primary gastric carcinoma and from 1,308 cases of radical surgery, as listed in the 1976 National Cancer Record of the GDR. Results were examined relative to the number of radical operations per annum. Involved in the above treatment of gastric carcinoma were 237 surgical wards throughout the GDR. Numbers of radical operations were between one and four per annum in 56.1 per cent of all wards (Group I), between 5 and 19 in 40.5 per cent (Group II), and 20 or more in only 3.4 per cent (Group III). Radical removability accounted for 13.2 per cent of all cases in Group I, 28.2 per cent in Group II, and 38.5 per cent in Group III. Better therapeutic results relative to the number of radical operations per annum were reflected in the following absolute five-year survival rates: 3.4 per cent in Group I, 6.8 per cent in Group II, and 10.6 per cent in Group III. These findings are likely to support the advisability of regional centralisation of treatment for stomach carcinoma.