Background: Gastric cancer is a common malignancy with a poor prognosis. The improved survival reported from Japan may be due to earlier detection or to more radical surgery, or both. The relevance of their methods to gastric cancer seen in Western countries is uncertain.

Patients and methods: The study involved 204 patients with gastric carcinoma. Preoperative staging by computed tomography scan and endoscopic ultrasound showed that 120 patients (59%) had stage IV disease.

Results: Curative resection was performed in 66 patients, palliative resection in 32, bypass/intubation in 39, chemotherapy alone in 41, and sup-portive treatment in 26. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was given to 40 of 66 patients treated with curative resection. The mortality of gastrectomy was 3%. Survival was significantly improved after curative resection compared with palliative resection, which in turn was improved over non-resectional or nonsurgical therapy. Postoperative morbidity included four intra-abdominal abscesses, all associated with splenectomy.

Conclusions: Curative surgery for gastric cancer is worthwhile, but the advanced stage of the disease in a public hospital should encourage the establishment of a screening program in high risk populations.