Clinicopathologic characteristics and survival of elderly patients with gastric cancer

From 1980 to 1991, Japanese patients aged over 49 years with gastric cancer underwent gastric resection in our hospitals. For various studies, two groups, 35 patients over 79 years (advanced age group) and 884 patients aged 50-79 years (mature age group) were prepared. A retrospective study was done with special reference to clinicopathological features and the prognosis. There were no differences in clinicopathological characteristics between the two groups, except for operative procedures and the size, histology and vascular involvement of the primary tumor. The survival rate for the advanced age group was higher than that for the mature age group, with a significant difference at p = 0.00556. However, the postoperative morbidity rate was 48.6% in the advanced age group compared with 5.1% in the mature age group. The most frequent complications were respiratory-related, that is, atelectasis, pneumonia or aspiration pneumonia. Based on these data, advanced age is not a contraindication for resection of a gastric cancer, but patients with serious pulmonary and/or cardiac diseases would not be candidates.