Abstract

Between 1980 and 1992, 3176 patients with adenocarcinoma of stomach underwent surgical treatment at the detartment of Surgery, Kosin University. The prognostic significance of histologic classification in patients with gastric cancer has been controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical parameters according to the WHO and Lauren's classification and the implication of both classifications as a prognostic factor in gastric cancer. The clinical characteristic according to the histopathologic classification were evaluated in 2099 patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy. The authors also investigated whether the WHO and Lauren's classification represent a prognostic parameter by log-rank test and survival rate was examined with Kaplan-Meier method. The 2099 patients were classified as papillary type(23/2099 1.10%), tubular well differentiated(491/ 2099 l9.5%), tubular moderately differentiated(506/2099 24.2%), poorly differentiated(800/2099 38.2%), mucinous(l00/2099 4.8%), signet ring cell(230/2099 11%), and others(31/2099 0.3%), according to WHO, and as intestinal(1040/2099 49.6%), diffuse(835/2099 39.8%), and mixed(224/ 2099 10.6%) according to Lauren. The 5-years survival rate of gastric cancer patients in each stages were 100%, 100%, 50%, 7.6% in papillay adeno carcinoma, 89%, 80%, 49%, 4,8% in tubular well differentiated, 89%, 65%, 45%, 4.7% in tubular moderately differentiated, 86%, 62%, 36%, 4.2% in signet ring cell, 100%, 85%, 64%, 10% in mucinous carcinoma by the WHO's classification and 89%, 17%, 47%, 6% in intestinal type, 89%, 64%, 33%, 6% in diffuse type by the Lauren's classification. Based on the data presented in this study, we conclude the combination of WHO and Laurens classification may provide a good prognostic prediction in gastric cancer.

• Keywords: Gastric cancer, WHO, Lauren classification, Prognosis