Prognostic factors for gastric cancer in the elderly

Characteristics and prognosis of gastric cancer in patients aged ≥ 70 years

AIM: To elucidate the prognostic value of age for gastric cancer and identify the optimal treatment for elderly gastric cancer patients.

METHODS: We enrolled 920 patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy between January 2003 and December 2007 in our center. Patients were categorized into three groups: younger group (age < 50 years), middle-aged group (50-69 years), and elderly group (≥ 70 years). Clinicopathological features were compared among the three groups and potential prognostic factors were analyzed. The log-rank test was used to assess statistical differences between curves. Independent prognostic factors were identified by the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Stratified analysis was used to investigate the impact of age on survival at each stage. Cancer-specific survival was also compared among the three groups by excluding deaths due to reasons other than gastric cancer. We analyzed the potential prognostic factors for patients aged ≥ 70 years. Finally, the impact of extent of lymphadenectomy and postoperative chemotherapy on survival for each age group was evaluated.

RESULTS: In the elderly group, there was a male predominance. At the same time, cancers of the upper third of the stomach, differentiated type, and less-invasive surgery were more common than in the younger or middle-aged groups. Elderly patients were more likely to have advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and larger tumors, but less likely to have distant metastasis. Although 5-year overall survival (OS) rate specific to gastric cancer was not significantly different among the three groups, elderly patients demonstrated a significantly lower 5-year OS rate than the younger and middle-aged patients (elderly vs middle-aged vs younger patients = 22.0% vs 36.6% vs 38.0%, respectively). In the TNM-stratified analysis, the differences in OS were only observed in patients with II and III tumors. In multivariate analysis, only surgical margin status, pT4, lymph node metastasis, M1 and sex were independent prognostic factors for elderly patients. The 5-year OS rate did not differ between elderly patients undergoing D1 and D2 lymph node resection, and these patients benefited little from chemotherapy.

CONCLUSION: Age ≥ 70 years was an independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer after gastrectomy. D1 resection is appropriate and postoperative chemotherapy is possibly unnecessary for elderly patients with gastric cancer.

[Clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer and survival improvement by surgical treatment in the elderly]

BACKGROUND/AIMS

It has been known that elderly patients with gastric cancer show worse general condition and higher comorbidities. Therefore, few elderly patients undergo surgery. This study was designed to determine clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer in elderly patients and evaluate their survival improvements by the surgical treatment.

METHODS

Gastric cancer patients, diagnosed at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital between 2000 to 2004, were divided into two groups those aged ≥65 years vs. <65 years. Clinicopathological characteristics, incidence of postoperative complications, and survival time of patients in each group were analyzed.

RESULTS

Total 370 patients were subjected and divided into the elderly and the younger group (55.4% vs. 44.6%). The elderly group showed higher incidences of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Well differentiated adenocarcinoma was more frequently found in the elderly group (19.0% vs. 10.0%, p=0.025). There were no differences of operation time (242.6±70.7 vs. 257.3±83.8 min, p=0.115), postoperative hospital stays (15.8±10.6 vs. 14.7±9.8 days, p=0.361), and incidence of any complications (6.7% vs. 9.9%, p=0.309) between the two subgroups. The significant factors related with the elderly patient's survival were the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (stage I, hazard ratio [HR] 1.00; stage II, HR 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.44-3.72; stage III, HR 4.06, 95% CI 2.08-7.92, stage IV, HR 9.78, 95% CI 4.97-19.26; p<0.001) and the treatment modality (laparoscopy, HR 1.00; open surgery, HR 3.90, 95% CI 2.43-6.26; p<0.001). The elderly patients who underwent gastric cancer surgery showed prolonged survival on TNM stage I, II, and III than those who were treated conservatively.

CONCLUSIONS

In the elderly patients with gastric cancer, those who had received surgical treatments showed significantly higher survival rate than those who had treated conservatively. Therefore, aggressive surgical treatments should be seriously considered even for the elderly patients with gastric cancer.

[Usefulness of comorbidity indices in operative gastric cancer cases]

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the usefulness of the following four comorbidity indices in gastric cancer patients who underwent surgery: Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), Cumulative Illness rating scale (CIRS), Index of Co-existent Disease (ICED), and Kaplan-Feinstein Scale (KFS).

METHODS

The study subjects were 614 adults who underwent surgery for gastric cancer at K hospital between 2005 and 2007. We examined the test-retest and inter-rater reliability of 4 comorbidity indices for 50 patients. Reliability was evaluated with Spearman rho coefficients for CCI and CIRS, while Kappa values were used for the ICED and KFS indices. Logistic regression was used to determine how these comorbidity indices affected unplanned readmission and death. Multiple regression was used for determining if the comorbidity indices affected length of stay and hospital costs.

RESULTS

The test-retest reliability of CCI and CIRS was substantial (Spearman rho=0.746 and 0.775, respectively), while for ICED and KFS was moderate (Kappa=0.476 and 0.504, respectively). The inter-rater reliability of the CCI, CIRS, and ICED was moderate (Spearman rho=0.580 and 0.668, and Kappa=0.433, respectively), but for KFS was fair (Kappa=0.383). According to the results from logistic regression, unplanned readmissions and deaths were not significantly different between the comorbidity index scores. But, according to the results from multiple linear regression, the CIRS group showed a significantly increased length of hospital stay (p<0.01). Additionally, CCI showed a significant association with increased hospital costs (p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that the CCI index may be useful in the estimation of comorbidities associated with hospital costs, while the CIRS index may be useful where estimatation of comorbiditie associated with the length of hospital stay are concerned.

Clinical and prognostic aspects of gastric carcinoma in the elderly

The aim of the present study was to analyze the influence of various factors on the prognosis for elderly patients with gastric carcinoma. Forty-eight patients aged > or =65 years admitted to Padova General Hospital were divided into two groups by age (<75 or >75 years). They all had a histologically confirmed diagnosis of gastric adenocarcinoma. Information on their clinicopathological characteristics was collected from the Padova Hospital medical records. On univariate analysis, significant prognostic factors in the two age groups were gender, stage, histotype (Lauren's intestinal type), Charlson index, and type of surgery (curative resection, palliative resection, and no surgery). On multivariate analysis, independent prognostic factors were the Charlson index, tumor stage, and age group. The 52-month survival rate was 72.7% for females and 12.5% for males for patients > or =75 years (P = 0.01), while for the whole series of patients it was 67.5% for females and 29.9% for males (P = 0.003). The 17-month survival rate was 55.6% for surgically treated patients and 0% for the untreated cases in stage 4 (P = 0.03). Gastric cancer should be treated with conventional surgery even in the very elderly, since the survival rate for this age group does not differ significantly from the figures for younger patients.