Gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma of young patients who underwent curative surgery: a comparative analysis with older group.

PURPOSE

Adenocarcinoma of the stomach at a young age has a poor prognosis, but there are few reports describing gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. This study aimed to compare the clinicopathological characteristics between the young and old patients who underwent curative surgery.

METHODS

One thousand three hundred and sixty-one patients with gastric adenocarcinoma underwent a curative gastrectomy between January 1, 1992 and December 31, 2006. Of these, 141 (10.4%) cases were gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma according to the Siewert's classification, and the data were collected prospectively for the analysis of the young age group (under 44 years old), in comparison to the older age group, with factors such as pathological characteristics, recurrence, and survival.

RESULTS

The sex ratio was near 1:1 in the younger group while it was predominantly male in the older group. There were no significant differences in the clinicopathological characteristics, such as the recurrence and survival rate, between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The factor of young age does not critically affect the clinical course of gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. This may be attributed to curative surgery and multimodality therapy.