Gastric cancer in the province of Zaragoza (Spain): a survival study.

A study of the main prognostic factors and of the overall survival rate of gastric cancer (GC) is presented. It covered 895 cases diagnosed histopathologically in the province of Zaragoza (Spain) over a ten-year period (1980-1989). The analysis of the survival rate was carried out according to the Kaplan-Meier method and the Mantel-Haenszel test. The average overall survival rate of the sample was 6.5 months and the five-year survival rate was 16.5%. Lauren's intestinal histological type is associated with a better prognosis (a five-year survival rate of 25%) than the diffuse type (15%). The survival rate with regard to gastric wall invasion ranges from 78% for T1 tumors to 8% for T4 tumors (p < 0.0001). There are significant differences in survival rate between the TNM classification stages, ranging from a five-year survival rate of 77% for Stage I to 0% for Stage IV.