Carcinoma of the cardia and proximal third of the stomach. Results of surgical treatment in 91 consecutive patients.

In the present retrospective study, 79 percent of the patients were men with a median age of 65.5 years. Of 91 patients, 84 were surgically explored. Excision of the tumor was carried out in 57 patients (63 percent) and was curative in 28 cases and palliative in 29 cases. Curative resection included proximal gastrectomy in 5 patients and total gastrectomy in 23 patients, which was extended to the spleen and distal pancreas in 18 patients. Lymph node metastases were found in 67 percent of the patients treated by resection. According to the TNM classification, 18 percent of the patients undergoing resection had stage I tumor, 28 percent had stage II tumor, 40 percent had stage III tumor, and 14 percent had stage IV tumor. The postoperative mortality rate was 16 percent for the entire series, 21 percent for patients undergoing palliative resection, and only 4 percent for patients undergoing curative resection. Three patients had an obvious anastomotic leak, one of whom died. Median survival time was 5 months for patients who had exploration only, 6 months for patients who had palliative resection, and 36 months for patients who had potentially curative resection. The 5 year actuarial survival rate was 20 percent for patients having resection and 40 percent for patients having curative resection. Survival was closely related to tumor stage. These results indicate that total gastrectomy with complete abdominal lymph node dissection can give comparatively good long-term results when performed for cure. Nevertheless, only one of three patients in this series could have a potentially curative resection. The only way to increase the curative resection rate and to improve survival is to detect the cancer at an early stage.