Trends in survival rates in Japanese patients with advanced carcinoma of the stomach

From 1965 to 1985, 1,150 patients underwent gastrectomy for carcinoma of the stomach invading beyond the submucosa. One thousand, one hundred and forty-one patients were studied for five years or longer. The patients were classified into two groups-those treated from 1965 to 1974 (n=622) and those treated from 1975 to 1985 (n=519). In the more recent group, there was a significant increase in the number of patients more than 70 years of age, in the number of female patients, of carcinomas present in the upper two-thirds of the stomach, in tumors exceeding 10 centimeters and diffusely infiltrative type and in early cancer-simulating type of advanced carcinoma in gross appearance and in undifferentiated type adenocarcinomas in histology. Although differences in the incidence of patients treated by radical procedures, such as extensive lymph node dissection and combined resection of adjacent organs, were not statistically significant, the incidence for those who underwent total gastrectomy was significantly increased. The over-all long term survival rate remained unchanged during 1965 to 1985 (five year survival rate of 31.3 versus 32.8 per cent). However, there was a significantly longer survival period for patients who underwent total gastrectomy (five year survival rate of 22.9 versus 28.3 per cent) (p<0.05). Much of the improvement can be attributed to an increase in the detection of relatively small advanced carcinomas and of advanced carcinomas of the stomach simulating early carcinoma in the upper one-third of the stomach. Therefore, we emphasize the need to diagnose advanced carcinoma of the stomach when the lesion is in an earlier stage of disease.