engleski

Special features of the gastric carcinoma in the elderly

Tumor spread in the lymph nodes is one of the major factors influencing the survival of patients with gastric cancer. It takes at least 16 harvested lymph nodes to determine the N stadium.It is known, however, that the number and the size of the lymph nodes in certain anatomic regions depend on constitutional features of patient, mainly age. It is not, however, known is there a link between the age of patient and the number of lymph nodes which can be found in tissues resected in a standard surgical or pathohistological manner or in which way could that influence the determination of cancer stadium. This study included 40 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma which all underwent potentially curative gastric resection between 2000. and 2002. The results of this study showed that the number of harvested lymph nodes is bigger in patients 65 y old or younger (averaging 16, 6) comparing to the patients older than 65 averaging 14, 2). There is a statistically negative corelation between the age of the patient and the number of harvesetd lymph nodes, as well as the negative corelation between the patient's age and the size of the isolated lymph nodes. The results of this study point out the need of paying a special attention when determing the status of positive lymph nodes in patients with gastric cancer.

gastric cancer; surgery; age groups

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