Gastric cancer patients at high-risk of having synchronous cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To identify patients with a high-risk of having a synchronous cancer among gastric cancer patients.


METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed the prospective gastric cancer database at the National Cancer Center, Korea from December 2000 to December 2004. The clinicopathological characteristics of patients with synchronous cancers and those of patients without synchronous cancers were compared. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify the risk factors for the presence of a synchronous cancer in gastric cancer patients.


RESULTS
111 of 3291 gastric cancer patients (3.4%) registered in the database had a synchronous cancer. Among these 111 patients, 109 had a single synchronous cancer and 2 patients had two synchronous cancers. The most common form of synchronous cancer was colorectal cancer (42 patients, 37.2%) followed by lung cancer (21 patients, 18.6%). Multivariate analyses revealed that elderly patients with differentiated early gastric cancer have a higher probability of a synchronous cancer.


CONCLUSIONS
Synchronous cancers in gastric cancer patients are not infrequent. The physicians should try to find synchronous cancers in gastric cancer patients, especially in the elderly with a differentiated early gastric cancer.
Lee
Jun Ho
JH
Research Institute & Hospital, National Cancer Center, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea.
Bae
Ja Seong
JS
Ryu
Keun Won
KW
Lee
Jong Seok
JS
Park
Sook Ryun
SR
Kim
Chan Gyoo
CG
Kook
Myoung Cheorl
MC
Choi
Il Ju
IJ
Kim
Young Woo
YW
Park
Jae-Gahb
JG
Bae
Jae-Moon
JM