Effects of Invasion Depth of Gastric Cancer and Postoperative Chemotherapy on Prognosis of Elderly Patients

ObjectiveTo define the relationship between clinicopathological factors and the prognosis of the elderly gastric cancer patients with surgical therapy. MethodsA retrospective database of the gastric cancer patients undergoing surgical resection from January 2002 to December 2005 was collected. Clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed, and these including age, gender, location and size of tumor, morbidities (hypertension and heart disease), type of radical or palliative surgery, volume of gastric resection, WHO pathological type, TNM stage,and postoperative chemotherapy. ResultsThe median survival time of elderly patients group (more than 70 years old) is 44 months, which is shorter than other groups with the middle age group (range,41~69 year, P=0.001) as 78 months and the young group (less than 40 year, P=0.009) as 72 months. In the elderly patients, the primary lesion of gastric cancer mostly presented with T3/T4, but combined resection of involved organs less performed, more with morbidities such as hypertension and heart disease, but postoperative chemotherapy less received. ConclusionProgressive invasion depth of gastric cancer and not receiving postoperative chemotherapy correlated with poor prognosis.