Surgical and Survival Outcomes of Operable Gastric Cancer—Experience from a Tertiary Care Center in South India

Gastric cancer is one of the leading cancers in Southern India. Data regarding the gastric cancers among the Indian population is sparse. Most patients in our country have locally advanced gastric cancers due to delayed presentation. In this article, we present our data regarding the presentation patterns, epidemiological demographics, surgical outcomes, and survival patterns from a tertiary care center in South India. This is a retrospective analysis of gastric cancer patients who underwent gastrectomy in our institution between January 2015 and November 2021 (n = 102). The data regarding patient characteristics, histopathology, and perioperative outcomes were analysed from medical records. The adjuvant treatment received and survival details were collected from the follow-up records and by telephonic interviews. A total of 128 patients were assessable, 102 patients underwent gastrectomy in a period of 6 years. The median age of presentation was 60 years and males were more commonly affected (70.6%). Most common presentation was pain abdomen followed by gastric outlet obstruction. Adenocarcinoma NOS (93%) was the most common histological type. Most of the Patients had antropyloric growths (79.4%) and subtotal gastrectomy with D2 lymphadenectomy was the most common surgery performed. Majority of the tumors were T4 tumors (55.9%) and nodal metastases were detected in 74% of the specimens. Predominant morbidity was wound infection (6.1%) followed by anastomotic leak (5.9%) with a combined overall morbidity of 16.7% and 30-day mortality of 2.9%. Seventy five (80.5%) patients were able to complete all planned 6 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy. The median time of survival calculated by Kaplan–Meier method was 23 months with 2-year and 3-year overall survival rates of 31% and 22%, respectively. Lymphovascular invasion (LVSI) and lymph nodal burden were the risk factors associated with recurrences and deaths. The patient characteristics, histological factors, and perioperative outcomes revealed most of our patients presented in locally advanced stages with poor risk histological types and increased nodal burden contributing to the lower survival in our population. Inferior survival outcomes suggest the need to explore perioperative and neoadjuvant chemotherapy options in our population.