[Clinical and prognostic features of surgical treatment in gastric cancer in aged patients]

Abstract

The incidence of gastric cancer in the elderly is increasing because of increased life expectancy and improved medical care. Gastric cancer in the elderly is characterized by specific clinicopathological features, including a male-predominance gender tendency, more comorbid diseases, more advanced clinical stage, distinct histopathological findings, absence of family history, etc. The incidence of surgery-related post-operative complication shows no significant difference between elderly and non-elderly patients. However, the incidence of non-surgery-related complications is relatively higher in elderly patients. Although the overall survival rate of elderly patients is lower, the disease-specific survival rate of elderly patients is comparable with non-elderly patients. Therefore, surgery is still an effective way to improve the prognosis of elderly gastric cancer patients, and care should be taken while dealing with the comorbid diseases in elderly gastric cancer patients to improve the survival.