Objective: To investigate the clinical importance of palliative gastrectomy for late-staged gastric cancer.
Methods: From June 1994 to October 2001, 95 patients with late-staged gastric cancer underwent palliative operation. Clinicopathological and prognostic parameters between 64 patients with palliative gastrectomy (PG group) and 31 patients with unresectable operation (UO group) was compared retrospectively.
Results: The age and gender ratios were not different between the two groups. The incidence of large volume (diameter > or = 8 cm), serosal invasion (T(4)) and late TNM stage (IV stage) were significantly higher in the UO group than that in the PG group. There was no difference in peritoneal dissemination, distant lymph node and hepatic metastasis, and tumor location between the two groups. The one- and two-year survival of the patients in the PG group was 48.1% and 23.1%, and significantly better than 13.5% and 0 in the UO group.
Conclusions: Palliative gastrectomy, compared with unresectable operation, can improve the prognosis of the patients with late-staged gastric cancer even with peritoneal dissemination, distant lymph node and hepatic metastasis, and surrounding organ invasion.