Gastric cancer in young people under 30 years of age: worse prognosis, or delay in diagnosis?

Figures & data

Table 1 General characteristics of the patient population

Age, years (range)	27 (18–30)
Gender
Male, n (%)	16 (54)
Female, n (%)	14 (46)
Oncological history	33%
Primary manifestation	70%
Endoscopy	83%
Tomography	57%
Previous management	40%
Clinical stage
IIIC	5 (17%)
IV	25 (83%)

Table 2 Treatment employed in the population studied

Characteristics	Medical treatment	Surgical treatment
	n = 18 (60%)	n = 12 (40%)
	Gender
Male, n (%)	14 (47)	4 (13)
Female, n (%)	4 (13)	8 (27)
Age, years
<20	2 (7)	0 (0)
>20	22 (73)	6 (20)

Table 3 Different types of surgical treatment

Treatment type	Males, n	Females, n	Total treatments, n
Surgical	4	8	12
Gastrojejunal anastomosis (derivation)	2	3	5
Subtotal gastrectomy	1	2	3
Total gastrectomy	0	2	2
Other	1	1	2

Table 4 Gastric cancer lesion/tumor types (histology)

Histological type	Males, n	Females, n	Total (%)
Signet ring cell adenocarcinoma	5	8	44
Moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma	3	1	13
Poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma	5	2	23
Other histologies	4	2	20

Table 5 Prevalence of symptoms related to gastric cancer

Symptoms	Patients, n (%)
Epigastric pain	21 (70)
Obstruction	3 (10)
Early fullness	3 (10)
General symptoms (asthenia, adynamia, hyporexia)	2 (7)
Upper digestive tract bleeding	1 (3)

Table 6 Duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis of gastric cancer

Duration	Patients, n (%)
0–1 months	0
1–3 months	1 (3)
3–6 months	2 (7)
6–12 months	24 (80)
1–2 years	3 (10)

Figure 1 Survival at 6 months in patients under 30 years of age with gastric cancer.

Note: Mean survival was 86.8 days (95% confidence interval: 59.3–140.3 days).