title: [Growth rates of gastric cancer in the aged].
abstract: Yamashiro et al reported "growth patterns of gastric cancers in the aged" in 1991 using 219 autopsy cases and 33 followup cases of gastric cancer in the natural course without operations obtained for 16 years. They also showed a certain curve of cancer area and ordinal number of tumor size on the logarithmic scale of both axes obtained from 120 gastric cancer cases from autopsy. We considered the curve by Yamashiro as a model curve of cancer growth by regarding ordinal numbers of tumor size as course times of tumor growth. Then we re-examined the 33 follow-up cases and calculated the tumor growth rate in each case by means of comparing case data with the model curve described above. In the result, the follow-up cases were grossly divided into 5 groups of ratios of growth rate 2(0), 2(1), 2(2), 2(3) and 2(4). In some articles about the cancer growth-rate of digestive organs, their data-values of doubling-time are suggestive of an arrangement with groups and gaps in it, respectively. They seem supportive of our results above.
authors.affiliation: Formerly, Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital.
authors.forename: Yujiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kino
authors.forename: Tadao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakamura
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*