Objective To explore the effects of clinicopathological features and adjuvant therapy on the prognosis of patients with poorly-differentiated gastric neuroendocrine tumors.

Methods We retrospectively analyzed 124 cases of gastric neuroendocrine tumors treated with radical surgery. The neoplasms were classified into different types, grades and stages according to the standard of classification. Follow-up was conducted. The survival curves were drawn by Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate analysis was performed by Log rank test and multivariate analysis was conducted by Cox proportional hazards model.

Results The 5-year survival rates of gastric neuroendocrine tumor, gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma and gastric mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma patients were 100%, 52.4% and 38.8%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that lymph node metastasis (P=0.030) and adjuvant therapy (P=0.017), especially cisplatin combined with etoposide regimen (HR=0.051, P=0.015) were independent prognostic factors for patients with gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma; while lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage and adjuvant therapy were not independent prognostic factors for patients with mixed neuroendocrine carcinoma.

Conclusion The prognosis of patients with gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma is related to lymph node metastasis and adjuvant treatment, and cisplatin plus etoposide regimen is a reasonable choice for adjuvant treatment.