title: Prognostic predictors of patients with carcinoma of the gastric cardia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study gives insight into survival predictors and clinicopathological features of carcinoma of the gastric cardia.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 233 patients who underwent operation for carcinoma of the gastric cardia. Clinicopathological prognostic variables were evaluated as predictors of long-term survival by univariate and multivariate analysis. Cox regression was used for multivariate analysis and survival curves were drawn by the Kaplan- Meier method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Carcinoma of the gastric cardia was characterized by positive lymph node metastasis (77.3%), serosal invasion (83.3%) and more stage III or IV tumors (72.5%). Overall 5-year survival rate was 21.9% and median survival period was 24 months. The 5-year survival rate was influenced by tumor size, depth on invasion, lymph node metastasis, extent of lymph node dissection, disease stage, operation methods and resection margin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The absent of serosal invasion and lymph node metastasis, curative resection should be considered to be the favourable predictors of long-term survival of patients with carcinoma of the gastric cardia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhigao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Guanyu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Hongfeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yingwei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xue
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D002299:Cardia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome