CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF ADVANCED GASTRIC-CANCER WITHOUT SEROSAL INVASION IN YOUNG AND OLD PATIENTS

Fifty-seven patients treated by radical gastric resections were retros pectively studied to understand the clinicopathologic characteristics of advanced gastric cancer without serosal invasion (the depth of tumo r invasion limited to the muscularis propria or subserosal layer) in y oung and old age persons. There were 36 patients in the old age group (age >60 years) and 21 in the young age group (age less than or equal to 40 years). The clinical and pathologic parameters for this study in cluded sex, gross type, location, maximum tumor size, depth of invasio n, lymph node metastasis, tumor stage, histologic type, and rate of cu rative resection. The old patients had a higher percentage of small tu mors, subserosal invasion and lymph node metastasis, but these paramet ers were not significantly different from those of the young patients, nor did the sex ratio, gross type, location, and rate of curative res ection show significant differences. The histologic feature was the on ly statistically significant parameter, determined by univariate and m ultivariate analyses. Poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and signet ring cell carcinoma were detected in 10 (47.6%) and 4 (19.0%) of the 2 1 younger patients, respectively, while there were 4 (11.1%) and 2 (5. 6%) in the old age group. Although the gastric cancer in young patient s had more aggressive histologic characteristics than it did in elderl y patients, survival rates between the two groups did not differ to an y great degree. Our findings indicate that the prognosis for younger p atients with advanced gastric cancer without serosal invasion was favo rable when curative resection was performed. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.