CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 14, 116-118, Copyright
© 1964 by American Cancer Society
Survival after Surgical Treatment of Carcinoma of the Stomach
L. Kraeer Ferguson M.D.1 and
Moreye Nusbaum M.D.2
1 Professor of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
2 Assistant Instructor in Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
A review of 94 consecutive proven cases of carcinoma of the stomach is presented. Patients were predominantly men (2:1), mostly in the age group—55 to 70 years, with no palpable mass. The duration of symptoms was predominantly under six months and mainly consisted of indigestion. Tumors were microscopically graded according to Broder; 84 of 94 cases were Grade III and IV tumors; 73 of these tumors were grossly infiltrating; 57 were distal, 12 proximal, and 25 diffuse in location. Seventy-eight presented with lymph node metastases at surgery and 62 had serosal invasion. Ninety-three of the 94 cases studied were operated upon. Sixty-seven per cent of these were resectable.
The type of operation and the postgastrectomy survival are discussed. There was an over-all operative mortality of 8.6 per cent; a 16 per cent operative mortality for palliative procedures; and a 4.7 per cent operative mortality for curative resections. There were 14 five-year survivals; an over-all five-year survival rate of 14.9 per cent. A correlation of five-year survivals with the type of operation and lymph node involvement revealed a 35 per cent five-year survival for all curative resections that survived surgery, and a 61.6 per cent five-year survival for curative subtotal resections without lymph node involvement. An assessment of some common denominators in the group of five-year survivors is made.
