A clinicopathological study in young patients with gastric carcinoma.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Gastric carcinoma rarely affects young patients. This study was undertaken in order to clarify the clinicopathological features and prognosis of young patients with gastric carcinoma.

METHODS

The resected 107 specimens from 105 patients younger than 30 years of age with gastric carcinoma were investigated using hematoxylin and eosin stain.

RESULTS

The male:female ratio was 1:1.6. Histologically, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma was the most common type (94/107, 87.9%) (P < 0.001). Most tumors were located in the middle third of the stomach (P < 0.001). All patients had depressed lesions. The 5-year survival rates of early and advanced gastric carcinoma were 100% (30/30) and 23.5% (8/34), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Characteristic clinicopathological features in young patients, such as gender ratio, tumor location, macroscopic type, and histological type, were different from those in older ones. The prognosis of early gastric carcinoma in young patients was much better than that in older patients, although the prognosis of advanced gastric carcinoma in young patients was worse than that of older patients. These findings seem to indicate that young patients with early gastric carcinoma can tolerate radical treatments well; however, the aggressiveness of lesions are emphasized in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma.