Clinicopathological staging of gastric cancer.

13 175 patients with gastric carcinomas have been staged with reference to the TNM staging system. This has confirmed the poor overall prognosis (5.5 per cent and 3.8 per cent age-adjusted survival rates at 5 and 10 years respectively). However, it has demonstrated the significant survival associated with the treatment of Stage I disease (70.0 per cent at 5 years and 63.2 per cent at 10 years). This study demonstrates that 72.9 per cent of cases are unresected and that interpretation of resectability rates must be related to the population base of the study.