[Prospective multicenter trial of gastric cancer surgery--a contribution to clinical research on quality control]

Abstract

By the mean of a prospective multicenter observational study (East German Gastric Cancer Study - EGGCS), 1 139 consecutive patients with gastric cancer were enrolled in 80 East German surgical departments from January 1 to December 31, 2002. Out of them, 1,031 (90.5%) underwent surgical intervention. The resection rate was 86.4% (n = 891); the R0 resection rate (n = 726) was 81.5%. Gastrectomy was performed in 79.8 % (n = 649) of subjects with radical resections (n = 813). In approximately 70 % of the interventions with curative intention, lymph node resection of the D2 compartment was carried out. The postoperative hospital mortality was 8.3%. The results were compared with the data obtained in the German Gastric Cancer Study (GGCS 1992); relevant differences and aspects were discussed.