Age-related characteristics of gastric carcinoma in young and elderly patients

BACKGROUND. The clinicopathologic features of young and elderly patients with gastric carcinoma have been analyzed. METHODS. We analyzed the data from 174 patients with gastric carcinoma age 40 years and younger and from 356 patients with gastric carcinoma age 70 years and older who were surgically treated at the Department of Surgery II, Kyushu University, Japan. RESULTS. The rate of multiple gastric carcinomas was 2.9% (5/174) for the young patients and 13.2% (47/356) for the elderly. In subjects older than 70 years, male patients predominated, tumors were smaller, differentiated lesions more common, vascular involvement more frequent, tumors were less infiltrative, and the rate of liver metastasis was higher. For patients younger than age 40 years, undifferentiated type with infiltrative growth was frequent and the rate of liver metastasis was higher. There were no differences in the positive rate of p53 overexpression and the proliferating activity of the cancer cells determined by PCNA LI, between the young and elderly patients. The survival rate after curative resection was lower for the elderly compared with that for the young patients; hematogenous recurrence was higher in the former. CONCLUSIONS. The clinicopathological features of gastric carcinoma differed between the young and elderly patients, and these differences should be considered when age oriented treatment is being designed.