Aim: To identify the subset of patients with stage IB gastric cancer with an unfavorable prognosis.
Methods: Overall survival (OS) rates were examined in 103 patients with stage IB (T1N1M0 and T2N0M0) gastric cancer between January 2000 and December 2011. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify risk factors using a Cox proportional hazards model.
Results: The OS rates of patients with T1N1 and T2N0 cancer were 89.2% and 94.1% at 5-years, respectively. Both univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that tumor location was the only significant prognostic factor. The OS rate was 81.8% at 5-years when the tumor was located in the upper third of the stomach and was 95.5% at 5-years when the tumor was located in the middle or lower third of the stomach (P = 0.0093).
Conclusion: These data may suggest that tumor location is associated with survival in patients with stage IB gastric cancer.
Keywords: Gastric cancer; Prognostic factor; Stage IB.