Gastric cancer is the most common malignant tumor in Korea. We reviewed the cases at our institution to identify the survival rates and clarify the prognostic factors of patients with gastric cancer.

We conducted a retrospective study of 6,918 patients who had received a diagnosis of gastric cancer, and they underwent surgery at Korea Cancer Center Hospital during a 15-year period from 1991 to 2005.

The overall 5-year survival rate was 66.8%. The univariate analysis revealed that age, location of tumor, gross type of tumor, the histology according to the WHO classification, the Lauren classification, depth of invasion (T stage), lymph node metastasis (N stage), distant metastasis (M stage), the type of surgery, the UICC TNM stage, postoperative complications, adjuvant chemotherapy, lymphatic invasion, venous invasion and perineural invasion were the significantly different factors of the survival rates. The multivariate analysis revealed that age , Borrmann type 4, the histology according to the WHO classification, depth of invasion (T stage), lymph node metastasis (N stage), distant metastasis (M stage), the type of surgery, UICC TNM stage, postoperative complications, adjuvant chemotherapy and lymphatic invasion were the independent prognostic factors. CONCLUSION: We have shown a statistically significant association between the survival rates after operation for gastric cancer and the clinicopathologic factors. Early diagnosis of gastric cancer, appropriate surgeryand adjuvant therapy might improve the quality of life and the survival rates of gastric cancer patients.