Clinical characteristics and comparison of the outcome in young versus older patients with upper gastrointestinal carcinoma.

Background: The clinical behaviour and outcome of young patients with gastroesophageal tumours (GET) is surmised to differ from older patients, yet data on the comparison of these two patient subgroups is scarce. This study focuses on the investigation of the clinical characteristics and survival outcome of younger-age people with GET, when compared to older patients.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with GET at the Medical University of Vienna between 2004 and 2016 were included in this study. Clinical parameters and the overall survival (OS) were compared between young (≤ 45 years) and elderly (≥ 65 years) patients.

Results: Among 796 patients, who were eligible for this analysis, fifty-eight patients (7%) were ≤ 45 years at the initial onset of the disease. These 58 young patients were then matched to elderly patients based on the gender, tumour stage, histology and tumour location. The number of metastatic lesions was significantly higher among young patients (p < 0.05). In a non-metastatic setting younger patients showed a significant longer OS than older patients (median 1226 versus 801 days, p = 0.028). Furthermore, young patients with extensive metastatic disease (2 or more metastatic site) had a significantly poorer OS than elderly patients (median 450 versus 646 days, p = 0.033).

Conclusion: These results indicate that young patients might be diagnosed very late, which might lead to the development of a more aggressive disease compared to older patients, but a relatively long OS when diagnosed and treated in a non-metastatic setting. Thus, screening methods for younger patients might be considerable to enhance the outcome of young patients with GET.