[Survival following microscopical radical resection of stomach cancer]

In a series of 128 patients operated for gastric cancer, 27 were microscopically radically resected. The median age of the microscopically radically resected patients was 72.3 years (36-84) at operation, the median observation time was 3.8 years, the crude 5-year survival was 48.2%, and the median hospital stay after operation was 12.9 days. The older patients did remarkably well. We found no significant difference in the number of survivors, survival/observation time or hospital stay between the age groups 55-64, 65-74 or 75-84 years. Thus age in its own right should be no barrier when curative surgical treatment seems possible. When the study was closed, 12 of the 27 microscopically radically resected patients were still alive, six had died from recurrence of gastric cancer and nine from other causes. Instead of crude survival, we suggest the results stated in estimates of cancer deaths prevented. Five years after microscopically radical resection for gastric cancer, 77.1% of the patients had not died from gastric cancer (Kaplan-Meier life table).