Surgical management of adenocarcinoma in the gastric cardia.

From 1979 to 1988, a total of 1083 patients with gastric cancer underwent resection at Kurume University Hospital. Among these cancers, 183 (16.8%) were located in the upper third of the stomach. Of these, 56 (5.2%) were adenocarcinomas in the esophagogastric (E-G) junction. Cancer in this area was designated as cardia cancer when the focus of the cancer was macroscopically located within 2 cm of the E-G junction line and the tumor was less than 8 cm in diameter. The incidence of early gastric cancer in the cardia was only 13%, while the incidence for stage III advanced cancer was high at 46%, and the positive lymph node metastasis rate was 59%. Thirty-nine (70%) were cured by resection with a 5-year-survival rate of 64%, while for non-curative resection, this was only 10%. Twenty-two cases of either advanced cardia or advanced CE cancer underwent combined resection of the diaphragm. The rate of invisible metastasis to the diaphragm was 20% in our experimental study. The two year-survival rate for a combined resection of the diaphragm was 64%, while the rate for those who did not undergo a required combined resection was 42%.