Gastric Linitis Plastica: Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes from the National Cancer Database

Gastric linitis plastica (LP) is a rare type of gastric tumor with limited data. We sought to investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment modalities, and outcomes utilizing a national database.

The National Cancer Database (NCDB) was reviewed for LP of the stomach from 2004 to 2017. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards model were utilized to evaluate overall survival and predictors of survival.

Out of 222,488 gastric cancer cases, 896 patients with histologically confirmed primary gastric LP were included. Patients were predominantly white (78.5%), female (51.9%) and presented at advanced stage disease (stage 4=69%). A total of 369 (41.2%) patients underwent surgical resection, 520 (58.0%) received chemotherapy and 158 (17.6%) received radiation therapy. The mean OS (overall survival) of the entire cohort was 16.9 months with 1-year and 5-year OS rates of 33% and 5%, respectively. Mean OS for the patients receiving surgery with chemotherapy and/or radiation, surgery alone, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy alone, and no treatment was 28.4, 17.1, 12.3, and, 8.1 months, respectively (p<0.001). On multivariate cox-regression analysis, advanced-stage disease (stage IV) (p<0.001), no surgical resection (p<0.001), and no receipt of chemotherapy (p<0.001) were associated with increased hazards of death. Over time, the proportion of patients receiving surgical resection (30.7% from 48.3%) and radiation therapy decreased (13.8% from 20.6%) and the use of chemotherapy increased (63.9% from 54.8%).

Gastric LP is associated with a poor prognosis. Multimodal therapy including surgical resection and systemic therapy in the neoadjuvant setting seems to provide the best long-term outcomes.