Predictive factors of postoperative mortality after junctional and gastric adenocarcinoma resection.

Importance: Postoperative mortality after junctional and gastric adenocarcinoma resection remains a significant issue.

Objective: To identify factors predictive of mortality within 30 days of junctional and gastric adenocarcinoma resection in a large national multicenter cohort.

Design: A retrospective study collecting data from a multicenter database of patients who underwent resection for junctional and gastric adenocarcinoma from January 1, 1997, through January 31, 2010. A stepwise logistic regression model was built to identify, by multivariate analysis, variables independently predictive of 30-day postoperative mortality (POM).

Setting: Nineteen university teaching hospitals in France.

Participants: Two thousand six hundred seventy patients with available data.

Main Outcome Measures: The primary end point was POM. Secondary end points included (1) late mortality (30-90 days after resection) and (2) postoperative morbidity.

Results: One thousand eight hundred ninety-six patients (71.01%) had gastric adenocarcinoma and 774 (28.99%) had junctional tumors. Neoadjuvant treatment was given to 655 patients (24.53%), and 114 patients (4.27%) died within 30 days of surgery. Postoperative mortality was higher in patients who experienced grades III and IV toxic effects during neoadjuvant treatment compared with those who did not (8.7% vs 2.9%, respectively; P = .007). Multivariate analysis revealed metastatic disease at diagnosis (odds ratio, 9.13 [95% CI, 3.29-25.35]; P < .001) and poor tolerance of neoadjuvant treatment (3.33 [1.25-8.85]; P = .02) as being independently predictive of POM. Centers performing at least 10 resections per year were found to be protective against POM (odds ratio, 0.29 [95% CI, 0.12-0.72]; P = .008).

Conclusions And Relevance: This large national cohort study confirms that advanced disease heightens the risk of POM; centralization of junctional and gastric adenocarcinoma resection is warranted. The novel finding that grades III to IV toxic effects during neoadjuvant therapy increase POM has significant implications for decision making in this subgroup of patients.

Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01249859.