Clinicopathologic features and prognosis of 71 patients with gastric cancer and disseminated intravascular coagulation

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer consists of solid tumors with a tendency for disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). DIC is rare in patients with stomach cancer, and there have been few studies on this condition. We aimed to perform comprehensive analyses of the prognosis and clinicopathologic characteristics of stomach cancer patients with DIC. METHODS: Between June 2006 and March 2020, 14,016 patients at Fujian Cancer Hospital were diagnosed with stomach cancer. We reviewed their medical records and found that 105 of these patients were diagnosed with DIC. After excluding patients who were lost to follow-up, 71 patients with DIC remained. The clinical data were retrospectively analyzed to observe clinical characteristics and prognostic factors, and the Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was performed. Prognostic variables were investigated by the Cox proportional hazards method. RESULTS: The median age was 54 (range, 21–83) years, and 38 patients (53.5%) were male. The histological category was poorly differentiated gastric cancer in 58 patients (81.7%). Eleven patients (15.5%) developed DIC after curative gastric resection. Sixty patients (84.5%) had DIC at the initial presentation of gastric cancer or developed DIC when the tumor progressed during treatment. Fifty-one patients (71.8%) had bleeding symptoms, and 43 (60.6%) patients had comorbidities at the time of DIC diagnosis. Among the 71 patients, 42 (59.2%) had multiple metastatic patterns. Twenty-one (29.6%) patients received chemotherapy. The median overall survival (OS) was 57.0 days (95% confidence interval [CI] [33.1–80.9] days). Tumor status (P = 0.000) and treatment (P = 0.003) were found to be significant variables associated with OS by univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that tumor status (P = 0.000) and treatment (P = 0.000) had independent effects on OS. CONCLUSIONS: Gastrointestinal bleeding, multiple metastatic patterns and comorbidities at diagnosis with DIC are common in patients with gastric cancer complicated with DIC. Patients with poorly differentiated gastric cancer are more likely to develop DIC. Treatment and tumor status are separate risk variables for the survival of gastric cancer patients with DIC.DIC patients without tumors have a good prognosis and can be cured by appropriate etiological correction and symptomatic treatment. Chemotherapy can improve the prognosis of DIC patients with tumors.