Survival comparison in gastric cancer patients between 7th and 8th edition of the AJCC TNM staging system: The first western single center experience

Background: The objective of this study was to compare the 7th and the 8th edition of American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system (AJCC TNM) in terms of better stratification in our gastric cancer resected patients. Methods and materials: A retrospective analysis of a single western center series was made. Patients who underwent surgery from January 2004 to December 2016 were enrolled in the study. We compared survival rates across patients classified according to the 7th and the 8th AJCC TNM staging system. Results: Among 295 patients we observed 9.8% stage migration according the 8th edition. Of these 2.1% and 7.9% of patients showed respectively a higher and a lower stage. 5 years Overall Survival (5Y-OS) according to the 8th edition for stage IIIB and IIIC were 32% versus 9% showing a better stratification compared to the 7th edition in which 5Y-OS were respectively 26% versus 22%. Conclusion: Restaging system seems to improve survival rate discrimination in particular comparing stage IIIB and stage IIIC; whereas in stage ILIA this is not so clear. More studies are necessary to confirm these data. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd, BASO - The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.