title: Survival of Patients with Stomach Cancer and its Determinants in Kurdistan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Stomach cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the second leading cause of death from cancer in the world. In Iran, this type of cancer has high rates of incidence and mortality. This study aimed to assess the survival rate of patients with stomach cancer and its determinants in Kurdistan, a province with one of the highest incidence rates of stomach cancer in the country.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied a total of 202 patients with stomach cancer who were admitted to Tohid Hospital in Sanandaj from 2009 to 2013. Using KaplanMeier nonparametric methods the survival rate of patients was calculated in terms of different levels of age at diagnosis, gender, education, residential area, occupation, underweight, and clinical variables including tumor histology, site of tumor, disease stage, and type of treatment. In addition, we compared the survival rates using the logrank test. Finally, Cox proportional hazards regression was applied using Stata 12 and R 3.1.0 software. The significance level was set at 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age at diagnosis was 64.7 ± 12.0 years. The survival rate of patients with stomach cancer was 43.9% and 7% at the first and the fifth year after diagnosis, respectively. The results of logrank test showed significant relationships between survival and age at diagnosis, education, disease stage, type of treatment, and degree of being underweight (P<0.05). Moreover, according to the results of Cox proportional hazards regression model, the variables of education, disease stage, and type of treatment were associated with patient survival (P<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The survival rate of patients with stomach cancer is low and the prognosis is very poor. Given the poor prognosis of the patients, it is critical to find ways for early diagnosis and facilitating timely access to effective treatment methods.
authors: Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran Email : d.roshani@muk.ac.ir.
authors: Ghobad
authors: G
authors: Moradi
authors: Kohsar
authors: K
authors: Karimi
authors: Nader
authors: N
authors: Esmailnasab
authors: Daem
authors: D
authors: Roshani
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D015996:Survival Rate