Prognostic impact of lymphatic invasion in patients with node-negative gastric cancer

✍ Scribed by Daisuke Ichikawa; Takeshi Kubota; Shojiro Kikuchi; Hitoshi Fujiwara; Hirotaka Konishi; Masahiro Tsujiura; Hisashi Ikoma; Masayoshi Nakanishi; Kazuma Okamoto; Chohei Sakakura; Toshiya Ochiai; Yukihito Kokuba; Eigo Otsuji

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 129 KB
• Volume: 100
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-4790
• DOI: 10.1002/jso.21311

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Background and Objectives

This study investigated the prognostic impact of lymphatic invasion on the outcome of patients with node‐negative gastric cancer.

Methods

A total of 828 patients with node‐negative gastric cancer who underwent curative gastretomy were reviewed retrospectively. The clinicopathological features and prognoses of patients with lymphatic invasion were compared to those of patients without such invasion.

Results

The total rate of lymphatic invasion was 18.2% in node‐negative gastric cancers, with a significant difference between early gastric cancers (9.8%) and advanced gastric cancers (49.2%). The presence of lymphatic invasion correlated significantly with tumor location, size and depth of tumor (P < 0.01). Lymphatic invasion was significantly associated with a poorer overall survival in node‐negative gastric cancer patients on univariate analysis (P < 0.001) as well as multivariate analysis (P < 0.01).

Conclusions

Lymphatic invasion provides additional useful information that could be applied to identify patients at high risk for recurrence who might be candidates for adjuvant therapies in patients with node‐negative gastric cancers. J. Surg. Oncol. 2009;100:111–114. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.