Residual Gastric Cancer: Clinical Manifestations and Prognostic Outcomes EOGC vs. LOGC

Objective Compare clinicopathology, recurrence, prognosis, survival, and treatment in EOGC vs. LOGC. Materials and Method A retrospective SEER analysis (2015–2023) of 5,811 gastric cancer cases examined clinicopathology, prognosis, and survival factors using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression. Results Compared to late-onset gastric cancer, early-onset gastric cancer exhibited a higher proportion of female patients (42.3%) and was more frequently diagnosed at stage IV (44.3%), with greater prevalence of T4 (23.6%) and M1 (44.0%) stages. Histologically, signet ring cell carcinoma was significantly more common in early-onset gastric cancer, accounting for 26.8% (218 cases) compared to 14.7% (736 cases) in late-onset gastric cancer (P < 0.001). Tumor localization also differed significantly between the two groups (P < 0.001), with early-onset gastric cancer more frequently occurring in the corpus, fundus, and gastric curvature (10.3%, 6.02%, and 5.41%, respectively). Furthermore, a much larger percentage of patients with early-onset gastric cancer (78.9%, 642 instances) than patients with late-onset gastric cancer (68.3%, 3,412 cases) received postoperative adjuvant treatment (P < 0.001). Surgery alone had better results than surgery plus chemoradiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy alone in both early- and late-onset gastric cancer. Conclusion Patients with early-onset gastric cancer have unique clinicopathological features and recurrence patterns, and surgical treatment is more effective than surgery combined with chemoradiotherapy. Graphical Abstract