Abstract
Three hundred fifty-eight gastric cancer patients over 64 years old who underwent gastrectomy were classified into three groups according to age. Group A was 65 to 74 years of age (n=244), group B was 75 to 79 years of age (n=74) and group C was 80 years of age or older (n=40). As a general rule, combined resection was not performed and modified radical dissection (D1) was performed in group C. The results were as follows: The mean operative time was 234 minutes in group A, 193 minutes in group B and 193 minutes in group C. The differences among these three groups were significant. Mean intraoperative blood loss was 672g, 517 g and 327g, respectively. The differences between group A versus group C and group B versus group C were significant. Mortality rates in the groups were 2.5%, 2.7% and 5.0%, respectively, and the differences were not significant. The incidence of postoperative complications was about the same. The cumulative 5-year survival rates in the groups were 58.7%, 47.9% and 31.1%, respectively. The difference between group A and group C was significant. And also when operative death and death due to other disease were excluded, the 5-year survival rate was higher in group A than in group B and higher in group B than in group C. However, the differences in survival among those three groups were not significant. We concluded that limited surgery is performed for patients with gastric cancer in aged 80 and over, postoperative compilations can be controlled same as those in aged under 80, while the survival would be lower in aged 80 and over than in aged under 80.
