Published online Apr 21, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i15.4401
Revised: February 7, 2014
Accepted: March 5, 2014
Published online: April 21, 2014
AIM: To investigate the clinicopathological features of gastric carcinoma in southern China and disease trends changes over the last 18 years.
METHODS: We designed a retrospective study in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the first affiliated hospital, Sun Yat-sen University. A total of 2100 adult patients with definitely diagnosed, histologically proven gastric carcinomas treated with radical gastrectomy from 1994 to 2013 were examined retrospectively. In all cases patient age, gender, tumor location, Borrmann type, histopathological type and grade, and pTNM stage were identified and recorded. The information was obtained from hospital records. The data were analyzed with Stata12.0 software.
RESULTS: In this study, the mean age of patients was 57 years with a range from 19-89 years. A higher incidence was found in patients over 60 years of age. In the study population, 67.38% of patients were male and 32.62% were female. Women had a higher disease incidence than men in patients less than 40 years of age (P < 0.001). No obvious change of patient age and gender was observed in the last 18 years. The rates of disease by location were the following: antrum (44.57%), followed by fundus/ body (24.95%) and cardia/gastroesophageal junction (23.00%). The mean tumor diameter was 5.57 cm, and advanced gross type Borrmann III was most common. Most patients were at advanced stages when first diagnosed, and patients with early stage disease were relatively rare. More early stage patients were detected in recent years, especially after 2000 (P < 0.001). Gastric carcinoma has different features in young and old patients. The young patients had the following features: more frequently female, tumors in the antrum, larger tumor size, poorly differentiated carcinoma, high rate of metastasis to other sites and advanced stages (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION: In southern China, gastric carcinoma was more frequent in old men and young women. Young and old patients should be treated differently for having different features.
Core tip: Gastric carcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumors in the digestive tract and is the second leading cause of cancer-related death. This study retrospectively examined 2100 adult patients from southern China. Gastric carcinomas were found frequently in old men and young women. No obvious changes of patient age and gender were observed in the last 18 years. Although most patients were at advanced stages when first diagnosed, early detection rates have increased. The young and the old patients differed in gender composition, tumor size, predilection site, pathological type and prognosis. Therefore, these patients should be treated differently in the clinic.