title: [Gastric cancer in the young].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the clinico-pathological characteristics of young patients with gastric cnacer.
  
  
  METHODS
  From January 1968 through January 1993, among 6098 gastric cancer patients admitted for surgical treatment, 312 (5.1%) were < 35 years of age. The clinico-pathological data of these young patients were reviewed and compared to those of patients in the other age groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this series of young patients, female predominated. Histologically, there were more cases with poorly differentiated (49.2%) and muco-cellular (26.6%) adenocarcinoma. The most common gross morphology observed was of Borrmann type III (38.1%) and type IV (36.9%). The mojority of patients (83.3%) were in TNM stage III and stage IV.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prognosis of young patients with gastric cancer surgically treated is poor. This is due to the fact that most of them are in late stage and their cancers are poor in differentiation rather than their young age. To increase the awareness of cancer in apparently healthy young persons is important for early diagnosis and treatment, and better prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300060.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery