title: Clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of mucinous gastric carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Reports of clinicopathological features and prognosis in patients with mucinous gastric carcinoma (MGC) are conflicting. The aim was to describe the clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with MGC in comparison with nonmucinous gastric carcinoma (NMGC).
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed the records of 1,278 consecutive patients diagnosed with gastric carcinoma who were resected surgically from 1993 to 2003. Among them, 48 patients (3.8%) with MGC were compared to 1,230 patients with NMGC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were significant differences in tumor location, stage of disease, lymphatic invasion, and vascular invasion between the patients with MGC and NMGC. The overall 5-year survival of patients with MGC was 27.2% as compared with 42.8% for patients with NMGC (P = 0.031). For the patients with the same stage, there was no significant difference between MGC and NMGC. With respect to patients with MGC, multivariate analysis showed that lymph node metastasis and curative resection were significant factors affecting survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MGC is rare and detected mostly in an advanced stage. Mucinous histology type itself is not an independent prognostic factor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterologic Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Guan-yu
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Hong-feng
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hong-yu
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Xiao-feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Ying-wei
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Xue
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D002288:Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D015996:Survival Rate