Marital status likely key factor in predicting early stage gastric cancer survival

Marital status is likely to be an important contributory factor in predicting long term survival in people with early stage gastric cancer, suggests research published online in the Journal of Investigative Medicine.

It should be added to the usual list of clinical and personal variables used to inform how long a person is likely to live after diagnosis, say the researchers. the prognostic value of marital status has been recognised for people with cancers of the liver and the lung, it isn't included in the list of predictive survival factors for early stage gastric cancer.

The researchers took clinical information that had been entered into the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 3647 patients diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 with early stage gastric cancer-that hadn't spread beyond the stomach to other parts of the body.

The following variables were included: age at diagnosis (in 10 year blocks from under 40 to 90–100); race; gender; tumour site; molecular findings (histology); grade (appearance of cancerous cells); spread to the lymph nodes (stage); surgery; lymph node removal; chemotherapy; radiotherapy; tumour size; insurance; and marital status.

Some 1793 (49%) of the participants were men and 1854 (51%) were women. Most (2231) were white. In all, 1957 were married, 274 were divorced, 41 were separated, 630 were widowed, 512 were single, and marital status wasn't known for 233. Overall, survival prospects were better among women than among men and among people who were married. In the training group, people who were married had the best prognosis (average 72% chance) while widows had the worst (average 60% chance). Similarly, when gender was taken into account, the chances of survival were highest for married men (average 69%); and married women (average 76%), while they were lowest for widowers (average 51%) and widows (average 61%). Survival was also significantly better in divorced women than it was in divorced men.

the researchers conclude, all patients diagnosed with early stage [gastric cancer] can use our nomogram to assess their prognostic risk after receiving corresponding treatment.

Reference: "Marital status likely key factor in predicting early stage gastric cancer survival"BMJ JOURNAL; Journal of Investigative Medicine;DOI:10.1136//jim2021-002285