Survival rate of gastric cancer in Iran.

Background: Stomach cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. In Iran, the mortality of stomach cancer is the first cause of death due to cancer in both sexes. This study was designed to estimate survival rate of stomach cancer at national level.

Methods: From the national cancer registry file, 3439 cases of stomach cancer that had telephone number and were diagnosed between years 2001 and 2005 were called to obtain information about their life status. Survival estimates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the survival probability was calculated for the overall cohorts and also for gender and anatomical sites of tumor. Relative ratios (RR) according to demographic and risk variables were calculated by Cox's proportional hazard model.

Results: The overall 5-year survival rate was 12.8%. The likelihood of death was higher in men (RR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.11-1.33) and patients more than 70 years old had worse prognosis rather than those below fifty years old (RR = 1.67; 95% CI: 1.46-1.91). The 5-year survival rate for tumors located in antrum was significantly higher than corpus and cardia (p = 0.009). Patients with lymphoma had a significantly higher 5-year survival rate compared to those with adenocarcinoma (RR = 0.46; 95% CI: 0.31-0.66).

Conclusions: The status of stomach cancer, including relative low survival rate in Iran, indicates the extremely urgent needs for health authorities to adopt measures of cancer prevention that proved effective in other countries.