THE INFLUENCE OF EXCESS BODY-WEIGHT ON THE SURGICAL-TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH GASTRIC-CANCER

Sixty-two overweight gastric cancer patients were compared with 201 no rmal-weight patients to clarify the influences of excessive weight on the surgical treatment of gastric cancer, The frequencies of hypertens ion and diabetes mellitus were significantly higher in the overweight group (P < 0.01), but no pathologic differences in the resected tumor were found between the two groups, The operative times were longer (P < 0.01) and the number of lymph nodes extirpated and examined was smal ler (P < 0.01) in the overweight group. The incidence of postoperative complications was not higher in the overweight group. The postoperati ve survival rate of patients with nodal metastasis was statistically l ower in the overweight group (P < 0.05). Regarding the causes of death in patients with nodal metastasis, 61.1% of overweight patients and 4 3.8% of normal-weight patients died of recurrence of gastric cancer, I n conclusion, surgical treatment of overweight patients with gastric c ancer was found to be technically more difficult and the prognosis of such patients with nodal metastasis may thus be worse than that of the ir normal-weight counterparts.