ASO Author Reflections: Survival Trends in Gastric Adenocarcinoma

Excerpt

Gastric cancer (mainly adenocarcinoma) is common and has a poor prognosis. By causing approximately 834,000 deaths annually, it is presently the third most common cancer-related death globally.1 Surgery is the mainstay in the curative treatment of gastric adenocarcinoma, and for locally advanced disease, perioperative chemotherapy is usually added to surgery.2 Gastric adenocarcinoma often is subclassified anatomically into noncardia (“distal”) or cardia (“proximal”) location because of the major differences in risk factor profiles and incidence trends of these locations.2 The prognosis in noncardia adenocarcinoma is generally better than that in cardia adenocarcinoma, but a declining survival for noncardia adenocarcinoma and an increasing survival for cardia adenocarcinoma has recently been observed.3^,4 This study was designed to assess changes in survival in gastric adenocarcinoma over time by assessing overall survival, survival in patients selected for surgery, and in those who do not undergo surgery.5 This is important for evaluating potential changes in the detection and treatment of this tumor. …