OBJECTIVETo analyze the clinicopathologic features and prognosis of young patients with gastric cancer by comparing with older patients.

METHODThe clinicopathologic data of 157 younger adults (age, 40 years) was analyzed and compared retrospectively. All of the 1918 patients were surgically treated between January 1980 and December 2000.

RESULTSThe rates of poorly differentiation, diffusive growth, Borrmann 4 type, whole-stomach invasion were significantly higher in younger cases than those in the elder counterparts (P < 0.05), especially in young female patients. The rate of early gastric cancer was significantly higher in young patients than that in older patients (P < 0.05), especially in young male patients. There was significant difference between the survival rate of younger male cases (median survival, 35 months) and younger female cases (median survival, 19 months) (P = 0.0219), but no significant difference was found between elder male and elder female (median survival, 26 vs. 30 months). TNM stage, operative curability, gross type were independent predictive factors of survival for younger patients.

CONCLUSIONSYounger female gastric cancer patients tends to have worse prognosis than older patients, while younger male patients have better prognosis due to higher percentage of early gastric cancer when diagnosed. Pathologic staging and operative curability are the independent predictive factors of survival for younger patients.