Human gastric carcinoma: prognosis in relation to macroscopic and microscopic features of the primary tumor.

The correlation of prognosis with various clinical and pathologic factors was studied by use of multiple stepwise linear regression analysis among 77 patients undergoing resections for gastric cancer. Factors such as depth of penetration, invasion of the duodenum, macroscopic appearance, intramural and extramural growth pattern of the cancer, lymphatic or vascular invasion, and cancer cell-free dense submucosal fibrosis around the cancerous area were significant, and independent factors correlated with the prognosis, in that order. When these factors were taken into account, other factors such as sex and age of the patient, location, size, and histologic classification of the tumor, and folds' convergence were not significant.