BACKGROUND/AIMS
This study gives insight into survival predictors and clinicopathological features of carcinoma of the gastric cardia.
METHODOLOGY
The study included 233 patients who underwent operation for carcinoma of the gastric cardia. Clinicopathological prognostic variables were evaluated as predictors of long-term survival by univariate and multivariate analysis. Cox regression was used for multivariate analysis and survival curves were drawn by the Kaplan- Meier method.
RESULTS
Carcinoma of the gastric cardia was characterized by positive lymph node metastasis (77.3%), serosal invasion (83.3%) and more stage III or IV tumors (72.5%). Overall 5-year survival rate was 21.9% and median survival period was 24 months. The 5-year survival rate was influenced by tumor size, depth on invasion, lymph node metastasis, extent of lymph node dissection, disease stage, operation methods and resection margin.
CONCLUSIONS
The absent of serosal invasion and lymph node metastasis, curative resection should be considered to be the favourable predictors of long-term survival of patients with carcinoma of the gastric cardia.