Outcome of gastric cancer patients after successful gastrectomy: influence of the type of recurrence and histology on survival.
BACKGROUND
The effect of the location of disease recurrence after curative (R0) gastrectomy on patient survival has not been elucidated. The authors hypothesized that the location of recurrence would have a significant influence on survival.


METHODS
Medical records of all patients who received treatment for gastric cancer at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center between 1985 and 1998 were reviewed. Patients who underwent R0 resection for gastric cancer and subsequently developed localized (anastomotic) recurrence (LR), lymph node (regional) recurrence (NR), or distant metastases (DM) were analyzed for overall survival (OS). All study factors were entered into a Cox proportional hazards model to provide multivariate hazard ratios. The model was adjusted for the effects of primary site of recurrence, histologic grade, patient age, and location of the primary tumor.


RESULTS
This retrospective analysis included 227 consecutive patients. The median survival of patients who developed NR (11 months) was similar to that of patients who developed LR (10 months), but both groups had significantly longer median survival compared with patients who developed DM (7 months; log-rank P = .03). Patients who had well differentiated or moderately differentiated tumors had a longer OS (11 months) than patients who had poorly differentiated tumors (8 months; log-rank P = .02). In this cohort, location of the primary cancer and age at recurrence had no significant impact on OS.


CONCLUSIONS
The data from this study suggested that, among patients who undergo R0 gastrectomy for gastric cancer, LR and NR versus DM should be considered a valid stratification factor for randomized trials based on significant differences in survival. Determining whether this stratification should apply to histologic differentiation will require further investigation in a larger multicenter cohort.
Rohatgi
Pooja R
PR
Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
Yao
James C
JC
Hess
Kenneth
K
Schnirer
Isac
I
Rashid
Asif
A
Mansfield
Paul F
PF
Pisters
Peter W
PW
Ajani
Jaffer A
JA
D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D015996:Survival Rate