Factores pronósticos relacionados con el cáncer gástrico

the gastric cancer is the second more frequent malignant tumor prevailing in western countries but mainly in the asiatic ones. the programs of early detection with imaging and oral endoscopy allowed to diagnose in initial stages and an increase in survival although the 60 % of patients are diagnosed in iii or iv stages and global 5-years survival is from 5 to 15 %. the objective of present review was to identify the prognostic factors related to gastric cancer in dependence of the patient, of the own tumor and of the treatment, which may to affecting the appearance of the tumor relapse after surgery and to help to take into account appropriate therapeutics. in the biological variables of patient there is not a significant association with the prognosis of gastric cancer, unlike the grade of wall invasion, the ganglion involvement and the tumor biological factors. surgery is the only potentially curative treatment, but it is not enough for many patients despite the wide lymphadenectomies. around the 80 % of patients operated on will show relapse with a fatal prognosis. chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy have not changed yet in a significant way, the natural history of this disease. the postoperative follow-up can not be systematized due to the low sensitivity of methods to detect the relapse pattern, as well as the lack of its effectiveness treatment. the characterization of the prognostic factors of gastric cancer allows to stratify the patients and to select different treatments trying to increase the survival.