Dr. Mariette on a Study of Postoperative Mortality After Esophageal and Gastric Cancer Surgery

Christophe Mariette, MD, PhD, surgical oncologist, professor of Surgery, University Hospital of Lille, discusses the results of a study investigating postoperative mortality after patients undergo surgery for esophageal and gastric cancer. These findings were presented at the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of age on postoperative mortality according to patient comorbidity in patients who underwent esophageal or gastric cancer surgery between 2010 and 2012 in France (n = 11,196). The 30-day postoperative mortality was compared by age groups, and the consistency across esophageal (n = 3286) and gastric (n = 7910) subgroups and variations between 30-day and 90-day postoperative mortality were investigated.

Overall, the results showed a linear increase in 30-day and 90-day postoperative mortality with increasing age. These findings demonstrate that age and patient comorbidity have a similar and cumulative impact on postoperative mortality after patients are treated with surgery for esophageal and gastric cancer.