Analysis of 390 patients surviving 10 years or longer after curative resection for gastric cancer

We analyzed clinicopathological features and prognosis of 390 Japanese patients with gastric cancer who survived 10 years or longer after curative resection. All of the patients were treated in our clinics. One hundred and ninety-one of these patients had early gastric cancer and the other 199 had advanced gastric cancer. The mean age was 53.5 years and the male to female ratio was 2:1. The upper one-third of the stomach was less commonly involved and a partial gastrectomy was most often done. Lymph node metastasis was present in 28.7% and extensive lymph node dissection (R2 or R3) was done in 92.5% of the cases. Nine patients died with a recurrence of gastric cancer and 20 patients died with a malignancy in other organs. Curative resection with extensive lymph node dissection and, when required, combined resection of the neighboring organs does improve the survival rate for patients with either early or advanced gastric cancer. An annual follow-up examination to rule out recurrences or malignancies in other organs is to be recommended.