The Most Important Prognostic Factors for Gastric Cancer Patients: A Study Using Univariate and Multivariate Analyses

Abstract

For the purpose of clarifying the most important factors in prognosis of patients with gastric cancer, 4734 primary resectable tumors were used for this study. Twenty-five variables were evaluated statistically, using univariate analyses and multivariate regression analyses. Both in univariate and in multivariate analyses, distant metastasis was quite significant in prognosis. The prognostic significance of each variable was measured by ratio of risk (RR), which was calculated by Cox's portional hazard model. Depth of invasion (RR, 4.69) and lymph node metastasis (RR, 4.04) were remarkably more significant than other variables, such as type of cancer (RR, 1.76), location (RR, 1.50), histologic type (RR, 1.16), in the group with no distant metastasis.