Survival in patients with stage IV noncardia gastric cancer - the influence of DNA ploidy and Helicobacter pylori infection

Palliative surgery followed by postoperative chemotherapy is a challenging approach in the treatment of stage IV gastric cancer yet patients must be carefully selected on the basis of likely clinical benefit. The records of 218 patients with histological diagnosis of gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent palliative surgery followed by postoperative chemotherapy were retrospectively reviewed. Twelve potential prognostic variables including tumour DNA index and serum IgG anti- Helicobacter pylori (HP) antibodies were evaluated for their influence on overall survival by multivariate analysis. The median survival was 13.25 months [95% Confidence Interval (CI) 12.00, 14.50]. Three factors were found to have an independent effect on survival: performance status (PS) [PS 60-70 vs. 90-100 Hazard Ratio (HR) 1.676; CI 1.171-2.398, p = 0.005], liver metastases (HR 1.745; CI 1.318-2.310, p 3.6 HR 3.059; CI 2.185-4.283, p