Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Disease-specific survival (DSS) for GC patients differs in Eastern and Western countries. The aim is to compare outcomes of US and Korean patients following resection of early-stage, node-negative gastric carcinoma (GC). METHODS: All patients (1995-2005) with T1N0 gastric carcinoma, excluding gastroesophageal tumors, were evaluated. DSS was compared by adjusting for prognostic variables from an internationally validated GC nomogram. RESULTS: The cohort included 598 Korean patients and 159 US patients. Age and BMI were significantly higher in US patients. Distal tumor location was more frequent in Korea (60% vs. 52%) and proximal location in the US (19% vs. 5%, P < 0.0001). Five-year DSS did not differ significantly between Korea and the US. After multivariate analysis, DSS of Korean patients persisted, with no significant differences when compared to US patients (HR = 1.2, 95% CI: 0.3-5.2, P = 0.83). CONCLUSIONS: Despite widespread speculations that GC differs in the East and West, when we compare similarly staged, node-negative GC patients, survival did not differ significantly between Korea and the US. This suggests that GC is a heterogeneous disease and when similar subtypes of gastric cancer are compared, these differences disappear. This study suggests more similarities than previously hypothesized between US and Korean GC patients.