Surgical therapy in "early gastric cancer"

Regarding early gastric cancer (E.G.C.) some authors propose total gastrectomy while others believe that partial resection is the best solution especially when the site is in the distal portion. The histological characteristics of E.G.C. in 49 patients were examined: 95.9% of the EGCs were found in the antropyloric region and 4.1% in the corpus-fundus. 47 patients were submitted to distal gastrectomy and 2 to total gastrectomy due to localization in the fundus. The overall survival rate after 5 yrs. is 83%. The incidence of the antropyloric localization, the rarity of metastases to the lymph node stations of the 2nd and 3rd level, the way in which intramural spread, occurs and, above all, the optimal survival rate obtained after partial resection, indicate that partial gastrectomy for distal gastric tumors is a radical operation, with a low surgical mortality rate, followed by a prolonged symptom-free survival.