Early gastric cancer

Stomach cancer--is it a lost cause?

A retrospective study of 7 years of endoscopy at Trafford General Hospital from 1986-1993 identified 143 patients diagnosed as having gastric cancer, of whom 13 cases were identified as early gastric cancer. Epigastric pain was the main symptom (66%) of those presenting with resectable disease. Weight loss (70%) was the most common symptom of patients presenting with advanced disease. Forty-seven patients had no surgery and 25 had palliative non-resective surgery. These two groups account for 50% of cases. With such a small detection rate of early gastric cancer and consequent curative surgery rate one must debate whether treatment of stomach cancer in the Trust hospital of the future is a lost cause.

Early gastric cancer

Early gastric cancer comprises more than 30 per cent of gastric carcinomas treated in Japan but remains an uncommon entity in the western hemisphere. A retrospective review of 48 patients with early gastric cancer undergoing operative treatment between 1965 and 1984 was carried out. The mean patient age was 70 years, in 31 men and 17 women. Preoperative diagnosis was made in 88 per cent of patients undergoing oesophagogastroduodenoscopy with biopsy but upper gastrointestinal radiography was diagnostic in only 20 per cent. Surgical management consisted of subtotal gastrectomy (86 per cent), total gastrectomy (10 per cent) and wide local excision (4 per cent). The operative mortality and morbidity rates were 0 and 38 per cent, respectively. Mean follow-up was 7.7 years, with 44 per cent of patients still alive. Multivariate analysis disclosed only a healthy Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group score (P = 0.002) and a diploid DNA tumour pattern (P = 0.05) as significant prognostic variables of survival. The overall survival rate of patients with early gastric cancer (70 per cent at 5 years) was equivalent to that of an age- and sex-matched control population.

Early gastric cancer

Early gastric cancer is a unique form of gastric carcinoma with an excellent prognosis. Now recognized worldwide, this tumor is most commonly diagnosed in Japan secondary to aggressive screening practices. Early detection is dependent on a low threshold for esophagogastroduodenoscopy with biopsies, because specific symptoms and physical findings or diagnostic laboratory tests are rarely present with early gastric cancer. Once the disease is diagnosed, subtotal gastrectomy achieves survival rates equivalent to those of age-matched controls. Consideration of total gastrectomy is warranted with proximal tumor location or multicentric carcinoma. Radical lymphadenectomy should be undertaken in patients with regional nodal metastasis. After operative resection, patient outcome is usually excellent. Large submucosal tumors with an aneuploid DNA pattern and nodal involvement denote a more ominous outlook. Close patient follow-up is necessary to detect both the uncommon recurrence and the more common nongastric malignancy.