Factors Predicting Survival of Patients with Gastric Cancer

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Gastric cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death in Taiwan. The literaturehas previously shown that age, tumor site, T categories, and number of metastatic nodes significantly affectprognosis. The aim of this study was to determine the long-term survival of patients with gastric cancer, aswell as the effect of particular prognostic factors on survival. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: This was a survivalanalysis study with retrospective design. We reviewed the records of 64 patients with adenocarcinoma of thestomach who had undergone gastrectomy with curative intent between 2009 and 2012 at a teaching hospitalin southern Taiwan. Data extracted from patient documents included age, gender distribution, tumor location,and pathological grading. <br/><b>Results</b>: The median follow-up time was 4 years, and there were 31 deaths attributedto gastric cancer. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that retrieval of less than 15 lymph nodes from a patient wasa significant predictor of survival. A significant predictor of poorer survival was higher pathological grading.<br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Our results indicate that the number of lymph nodes retrieved and pathological grading