E-PASS scoring system serves as a predictor of short- and long-term outcomes in gastric cancer surgery

Purposes This study aimed to evaluate the estimation of the physiological ability and surgical stress (E-PASS) scoring system for predicting the short- and long-term outcomes in gastric cancer (GC) surgery. Methods We analyzed a multi-institutional dataset to study patients who underwent gastrectomy with a curative intent between 2010 and 2014. This study evaluated the associations between the optimal E-PASS score cutoff value and the following outcomes: (1) the incidence of postoperative complications in stage I–III GC patients and (2) the prognosis in stage II–III GC patients. Results A total of 2495 GC patients were included. A cutoff value of 0.419 was determined using the ROC curve analysis. Postoperative complications were observed more frequently in the E-PASS-high group than that in the E-PASS-low group (30% vs. 17%, p < 0.0001). Among pStage II–III GC patients ( n = 1009), the overall survival time of the E-PASS-high group was significantly shorter than that of the E-PASS-low group (hazard ratio 2.08; 95% confidence interval 1.64–2.65; p < 0.0001). A forest plot revealed that E-PASS-high was associated with a greater prognostic factor for overall survival in most subgroups. Conclusions The E-PASS scoring system may therefore be a useful predictor of the short- and long-term outcomes in patients with GC who have undergone radical gastrectomy.