Abstract: Clinicopathologic Features and Prognosis of Gastric Cancer in 53 Young AdultsYanmin XING, Guangru XIE, Zhanyu PAN, Haiyan SUN, Dongying LIUCorrespondence to: Guangru XIE, E-mail: xieguangru@126.comDepartment of Integrative Medicine, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, China.Abstract Objective: To analyze the clinicopathologic features and the prognostic factors of gastric cancer in young adults.Methods: A retrospective study was peiformed using the clinical data of 53 patients aged 35 years or younger with all stages of gastriccancer who underwent surgery in our hospital between 2000 to 2006. Results: Of the 53 cases, the median age was 33 years (range:25～35 years), and the most common symptoms were abdominal pain and discomfort, reported by 77.4 %. The ratio of male to femalewas 1:1.65, and tumors were mostly found in the gastric antrum. Diffuse-type carcinomas based on Lauren classification accounted for81.1 %. According to TNM classification, 83% of all cases were stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ, the rate of serosal involvement ( T3-4 ) was 84.9 %, nodalmetastases ( N1-3 ) occurred in 77.4%, and distant metastases ( M1 ) occurred in 32.1 %. The curative resection rate of the group was on-ly 64.2%. The overall 1-, 3- and 5-year postoperative survival rates were 54.7 %, 22.6 % and 18.3 %, respectively, with an average sur-vival time of 29.79 months. Multivariate analysis indicated that stage, curative resection and postoperative chemotherapy were indepen-dent prognostic factors. Conclusions: In young patients with gastric cancer, the predominance of female cases and Lauren diffuse-typecarcinomas were distinctive characteristics. In young patients, the clinical stage is usually more advanced at presentation and the rate ofsuccessful radical resection is lower. Stage, curative resection and postoperative chemotherapy are important prognostic factors inyoung patients with gastric cancer.Keywords Gastric neoplasm;Young adult; Clinicopathologic features; Prognosis