Abstract
The 3-year survival rate after stomach resection for carcinoma was 15.9 per cent (7 of 44) in the cases with positive cancer cells, at the time of operation, in the regional blood and was definitely lower as compared to 45.7 per cent (58 of 127) in the cases with no cancer cells in the blood. The tendency was true even when the cases with no or little extragastric advance of carcinoma only were studied to simplify the condition of analysis. Among 143 cases which were considered to have undergone radical operation, moreover, the cases with positive cancer cells in the blood were significantly worse in the prognosis than in the negative cases. The present investigation thus seems to indicate a significance of the presence of cancer cells in the blood as a factor which considerably affects the postoperative prognosis of stomach cancer.
