Patients with multiple gastric cancers have poorer prognosis than patients with single gastric cancer

The postoperative survival of patients with multiple gastric cancers (MGC) was evaluated in a comparison with that of patients with single gastric cancer (SGC). During the past 30 years, 2,405 patients with gastric cancer underwent gastrectomy in our clinic. Of these patients, 2,241 (93.2%) had SGC and 164 (6.8%) had MGC. The survival of patients With MGC was significantly poorer than that of patients with SGC. The incidence of deaths caused by gastric cancer, by malignancies in organs other than the stomach and by nontumorous diseases other than malignancies was greater in each case in patients with MGC. While, there was no single, independent factor that explained the poorer prognosis of patients with MGC, the significantly greater age of patients with MGC might be responsible for an increased incidence of occurrence not only of other malignancies but also of nontumorous diseases associated with aging.