Adenocarcinoma of the stomach: Changing patterns over the last 4 decades

A retrospective study was performed on 255 consecutive patients admitted to a single hospital from 1953-1983 with a follow-up of 100%. The number of proximal esophagogastric junction and fundus tumors increased significantly over the last 4 decades from 21% to 44% (p < 0.001), accompanied by a significant decrease in antral carcinomas from 60% to 33% (p < 0.01). Patients with proximal neoplasms were significantly more likely to be white (71% vs. 29%, p < 0.001), whereas patients with antral cancer were significantly more likely to be black (64% vs. 36%, p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in nodal status, presence of distant metastases, or the overall 5-year survival rate between these two sites. The 5-year survival rate for the entire group was 6%. Sixty-five patients (30%) underwent curative resection, and the 5-year survival rate in this group was 24%, which was significantly better than palliative procedures. The 5-year survival rate was strongly influenced by TNM stage, local invasiveness, nodal status, and presence or absence of distal metastases (p < 0.001). Although the overall survival rate has not changed over the past 30 years, there were definite epidemiologic differences between proximal and antral lesions, which suggest that new treatment protocols should be designed to include the location of the neoplasm.