Mortality for gastric cancer in elderly patients

Background The aim of this study was to clarify the surgical outcome in elderly patients with gastric cancer. Methods The clinicopathological features of elderly patients (80 (3.7%), over 80 years, elderly group) were reviewed retrospectively and compared with those of younger patients (2,095 (96.3%), 23–79 years, control group). Results The elderly group had a significantly higher prevalence of concomitant disease ( P  < 0.0001), while the prevalence of T1 primary tumor, N0 lymph node metastasis, and stage I was lower ( P  = 0.0125, P  = 0.0004, P  < 0.0001). The rates of resected cases and curative operation (R0) were significantly lower in the elderly group ( P  < 0.0001, P  = 0.0021). The mortality from other diseases was 16.3% in elderly patients and 4.4% in control patients ( P  < 0.0001). The 5‐year survival of stage I and stage IV were not significantly different between the two groups ( P  = 0.1266 and P  = 0.2490). The overall survival and disease‐specific survival for all patients in the elderly group were significantly lower than those in the control group ( P  < 0.0001, P  = 0.0102). However, disease‐specific survival for resected cases was not significantly different between the two groups ( P  = 0.0725). Conclusions In elderly patients, the reason for the poor prognosis is the high rate of advanced stage and the high rate of death from other diseases. J. Surg. Oncol. 2003;84:132–136. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.