Survival of Patients with Gastric Cancer in Mazandaran Province, 2007-2012

Background and

Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and Mazandaran province is known as one of the areas with high incidence of gastric cancer in Iran. This study examined the survival rates and factors affecting survival of patients with gastric cancer treated in Touba Clinic of Sari.

In this retrospective study the information of 430 patients with gastric cancer were studied. They were followed up for a 5-year period from November 2007 until December 2012. The overall survival rates were determined using nonparametric method of Kaplan - Meier and univariate analysis, and log rank test was used to determine the factors affecting the survival rates of the patients.

Among the patients 68.8% were male and 31.2% were female. The mean age of male patients was 65.98 years and in female it was 61.12 years. The mean and median survival rates of these patients were 27.82 months and 19 months, respectively. The survival rate of the studied population in one, two, three, four and five years were 0.64, 0.44, 0.34, 0.28 and 0.19, respectively. Univariate analysis identified age at diagnosis (p= 0.001), degree of differentiation of tumor (p= 0.031), metastasis of disease (p= 0.000), tumor stage (p= 0.000), type of treatment for the patient (p= 0.000), histopathology type (p= 0.013), and location (p= 0.009) as effective diagnostic factors.

Five-year survival rate of patients with gastric cancer is low in Sari. Late referred and delayed diagnosis could be the reasons, therefore, early detection and screening methods are of great importance in improving the survival rate in these patients