RESUMO
Gastric cancer is a dreadful killer worldwide. There is enormous variation in the occurrence of the disease throughout the world. Only scarce data is available about the features and the prognosis of the disease in Africa. This study was conducted to determine clinicopathological characteristics, and the treatment outcome of patients with gastric malignancy in Sudan. A prospective descriptive study of 105 patients presented with gastric cancer over 2 year period in a general surgical unit in Khartoum Teaching Hospital [KTH]. The mean age at presentation was 57 years [range 23-78 years], and most of patients were males [80%]. The most frequent mode of presentation was epigastric pain [90%], loss of weight [90%] and anorexia [70%]. Upper gastric tumor location accounted for 42%. Histologically; carcinoma accounted for 100 cases, lymphoma in 3 and leiomyosarcoma in 2 cases. Adenocarcinoma was the most frequent [94%], well differentiated adenocarcinoma and intestinal type were also commonest varieties [31%] and [17%] respectively. Most of the patients had blood group O[+] [50%]. Palliative resection was attempted in 48 patients [45%] with a survival duration of 14 months compared with 5 month for those who had no resection [n=20]. Morbidity rate was significantly higher in the resection group compared with non-resection group, [18.8%] and [4.2%] respectively, while the mortality rate showed no difference, [15.9%] and [14.6%] respectively. Patients satisfaction was significantly better in the resection group. Gastric cancer is a disease affecting younger males presenting very late where palliative resection is an option in 45% of patients with satisfactory outcome and a mean of 14 months survival