Time to local recurrence as a predictor of survival in unrecetable gastric cancer patients after radical gastrectomy

Local recurrence is common after radical surgery. However, the factors that contribute to survival after local recurrence remain unclear. In this retrospective study we analyzed the relationship between time to recurrence and survival after recurrence in 74 patients with locally recurrent gastric cancer. All patients received palliative radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy. The patients were divided into two groups according to the time between gastrectomy and local recurrence: early local recurrence (ELR, < 12 months after primary surgery), and late local recurrence (LLR, ≥12 months after primary surgery). The median overall survival (OS) time was 15 months for patients with ELR and 25 months for LLR patients. Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that time to local recurrence was significantly associated with OS after local recurrence (P = 0.001). The hazard ratio of ELR compared with LLR patients was 0.442 (95% confidence interval: 0.264-0.741). These results indicate that early local recurrence predicted poor prognosis in gastric cancer patients with unresectable local recurrence.