LONG-TERM SURVIVAL (10 TO 56 YEARS) AFTER SURGERY FOR CARCINOMA OF STOMACH

From a group of 4,586 patients with carcinoma of the stomach who underwent operation at the Mayo Clinic with hope of cure during the period 1907 through 1955, 957 patients survived ten years or longer. An additional 110 patients survived ten years or longer but were not included in the study because their lesions were not adenocarcinomas. Follow-up studies ranged from ten to fifty-six years. Survival of these patients when compared with the survival of the normal population adjusted for age and sex indicates that if the patient lives ten years after surgery, his life expectancy is similar to that of a comparably normal population. These findings indicate that our previous conclusions and assumption regarding prognosis as determined by the usual criteria of location and size of the lesion, type of operation, laboratory studies, duration of symptoms, microscopic grade of the lesion, and lymph node involvement pertain primarily to the immediate years after operation and probably do not pertain to those who survive five years or longer. These studies indicate that an appreciable number of patients can be cured of cancer of the stomach and that they can survive for long periods of time. The usual morbid pessimism regarding cancer of the stomach is not necessarily justified, and greater effort should be made by physicians to offer patients with gastric malignancy an opportunity for cure. © 1969.