title: [The diagnosis, treatment and prognosis evaluation of gastric small cell carcinoma: analysis of 41 cases].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To summarize and analyze the clinical feature, therapeutic methods and prognosis of gastric small cell carcinoma (SCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical and pathological data of 41 patients diagnosed of gastric SCC were analyzed in this research. Also, the factors which may potentially affect the patients' survival outcome were evaluated. There were 35 male and 6 female patients. The age at diagnosis was 39-84 years, median age was 62 years. The 31 cases (75.6%) of gastric SCC patients were involved in the upper third of the stomach, 3 cases (7.3%) in the middle, 7 cases (17.1%) in the lower third.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The time from the event of symptoms to final confirmation was 1 to 13 months, the median time was 3 months. The longest diameter of tumors was from 2.5 to 15.0 cm, the average was 6.5 cm. The 38 cases (92.7%) chosed surgery as the first treatment, among which 25 cases (61.0%) were performed radical tumor resection, 13 cases (31.7%) went through palliative resection, and 3 cases (7.3%) just employed chemotherapy. The initial II, III, IV stage were 2, 31 and 8 cases, respectively. The overall median survival time was 19 months, median disease free survival time was 11 months, 1-, 2-, 5-years survival rates were 70.7%, 46.3% and 36.6%, respectively. In univariate survival analysis, the tumor size (χ² = 5.565), change of the body weight (χ² = 3.688), type of operation (χ² = 11.747) and relapse or not (χ² = 17.966) were obviously correlaed with the prognosis (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gastric SCC is a rare disease of the gastrointestinal tract, the misdiagnosis rate is high, and the prognosis is dismal. Muti-modality management, with radical surgical resection of the primary lesion followed by standard adjuvant-chemotherapy, affords better local disease control and a better survival outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Abdominal Surgery, Cancer Institute & Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Zhao-Xu
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xing-Hua
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D015996:Survival Rate