OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinicopathological features and postoperative short-term complications in the elderly gastric cancer patients.

METHODSClinical data of 270 elderly patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy in Department of Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine between July 2012 and June 2014 were analyzed retrospectively. Among 270 patients, 220 were 70 to 79 years old( old group) and 50 were ≥80 years old(oldest group). The clinicopathological features were compared between the two groups. Perioperative factors were analyzed to determine if they are associated with postoperative complications. Multivariate logistic regression model was performed.

RESULTSBefore operation, most elderly patients (n=161, 59.6%) had 2 or more than 2 comorbidities, including hypertension (n=154, 57.0%), anaemia (n=126, 46.7%), diabetes (n=53, 19.6%), arhythmia (n=52, 19.3%), cardiovascular disease(n=33, 12.2%), and chronic pulmonary disease(n=28, 10.4%). Elderly gastric cancers were more likely to locate at the lower third of the stomach (n=116, 43.0%). The pathological type was mainly the poorly differentiated carcinoma (n=152, 56.3%), and stage III was more common in TNM staging(n=138, 51.1%). As compared to the old group, the oldest group had more preoperative comorbid diseases(P=0.048), more previous surgery(P=0.029), more preoperative transfusion (P=0.019), more combined cholecystectomy (P=0.007) and feeding jejunostomy (P=0.037), but less tumor invasion of nerves(P=0.045). No significant differences in other clinicopathological parameters were found between the two groups (all P>0.05). A total of 121 (44.8%) patients presented postoperative complications, including severe complication in 30 cases(11.1%) and death in 4 cases(1.5%). Forty-seven patients(17.4%) presented operation-associated complications, including infection in 28 cases(10.4%) and leakage in 21 cases(7.8%). One hundred and seven(39.6%) patients presented non-operation-associated complications, including pneumonia in 48 cases(17.8%), hypertension in 23 cases(8.5%), and arhythmia in 17 cases(6.3%). Postoperative morbidities of Clavien-Dindo class II complication and non-operation-associated complication were higher in the oldest group compared with old group(P<0.05), while other postoperative complications were compared between the two groups, only urinary tract infection was significantly different(P<0.05). Univariate analysis showed that postoperative complications were significantly associated with age(χ(2)=7.308, P=0.007), number of comorbid diseases (χ(2)=10.872, P=0.001), cardiovascular disease (χ(2)=9.412, P=0.002), hypertension (χ(2)=4.934, P=0.026) and preoperative transfusion (χ(2)=3.911, P=0.048). Multivariate analysis showed that only the number of comorbid diseases was an independent risk factor for postoperative complications(OR=2.810, 95% CI: 1.710 to 4.616, P=0.000).

CONCLUSIONNon-operation-associated postoperative complications are more likely to occur in the elderly patients due to more comorbid diseases. Perioperative intensive care should be carried out for the elderly gastric cancer patients with comorbid diseases in order to improve surgical safety and efficacy.