Predictors of overall survival after surgery in gastric cancer patients from a Latin-American country

More than 70% of gastric cancer cases occur in developing countries. In the Latin American Region this malignancy is the sixth cause of death due to cancer in both sexes (1). In Costa Rica, gastric cancer is the first cause of death due to cancer in men and the second one in women (2). Despite the high prevalence and mortality of this malignancy in Latin America few epidemiological data exist to adequately characterize the clinical outcomes of these patients. Previous reports have acknowledged that overall survival (OS) can vary according to ethnicity, health care access and genetic background (3,4)