title: Endoscopic, clinicopathological features and prognosis of very young patients with gastric cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The number of clinical reports of very young (<35 years) patients with gastric cancer are limited. We aimed to investigate the endoscopic and clinicopathological features and long-term prognosis of this unique group of patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective endoscopy database review of all consecutive very young patients with gastric cancer was performed. The gender, age, clinical features, endoscopic and pathologic findings, and long-term survival of these very young patients were analyzed and compared with those of elderly patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 210 patients were included with a median age of 31 year, 60.0% was female, and 34.3% presented with alarm features, 19.0% reported family history of gastric cancer. 58.1% of these cancers were located in gastric body, 33.8% were located in the antrum. 63.8% of these cancers were found to be diffuse type; 18.1% of patients underwent curative surgical treatment, and the 5-year survival rate was 42.1%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study describes that very young patients with gastric cancer were mainly females, who were less likely to present with alarm features, but had a high frequency of family history of gastric cancer; and the majority of these cancers were located in gastric body, and they had similar long-term prognosis compared with elderly counterparts if curative surgical resection was performed.
authors.affiliation: Digestive Endoscopy Center, Department of Gastroenterology, Changhai Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Zhao-Shen
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy; D005773:Gastroscopy; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010375:Pedigree; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013270:Stomach / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult