Impact of Age on Prognosis in Iranian Patients with GastricCarcinoma: Review of 742 Cases

Background: Gastric carcinoma is one of the most common gastrointestinal malignancies worldwide. Somestudies have suggested that it has a worse prognosis in non-elderly than in elderly patients. The aim of the presentstudy was to clarify whether the patient’s age is an independent prognostic factor.
Methods: A total of 742 patientswith gastric carcinoma, who had registered in our cancer registry center between years 2001- 2006 were reviewedto investigate the prognostic significance of age. They were divided into the following two groups: non-elderly(under 70 years) and elderly (70 years or older). The clinicopathological features were reviewed retrospectivelyand a multivariate analysis was carried out.
Results: Lymph node metastasis and differentiated type were morefrequently observed in non-elderly than in elderly patients (P<0.0001) and older patients diagnosed with moreadvanced stages compared with those younger than 70 years old (P=0.015). 5-year survival rates were 27.2 and15.2% in non-elderly and elderly patients, respectively, the difference being statistically significant (P<0.001).Multivariate analysis showed that age and wall penetration were independent prognostic factors
Conclusions:Age clinically serves as an important predictor of survival in patients with gastric carcinoma and elderly patientswith gastric carcinoma have a worse prognosis than nonelderly patients.