Significance of Number of Metastatic Lymph Nodes for the Prognostic Indicator in Gastric Cancer Recurrence -Evaluation by Multivariate Analysis-

Tetsuro Nishida, Sumitaka Arima, Kitaro Futami, Kouichi Yamasaki, Tsuyoshi Kotoh, Satoshi Tateishi, Shuzo Tateishi, Shigemitsu Inada, Fumiaki Hara, Kenya Ookawara, Suzuo Hasegawa, Kunihiro Kitamura

Department of Surgery, Chikushi Hospital, Fukuoka University

We evaluated 393 gastric cancer patients who underwent curative or relatively non-curative resection and compared the number of metastatic lymph nodes with other clinico-pathologic variables as to postoperative disease free interval. Recurrent cases were 60 of 393 (15.3%), and sites of recurrence were peritoneum (25 cases, 41.7%), lymph nodes (15 cases, 25%), liver (12 cases, 20%), remnant stomach (4 casee, 6.7%,) and others (4 cases, 6.7%). Relatively more correlative clinico-pathologic variables between postoperative disease free interval were gross type, stage, depth of invasion, extent of lymph node metastasis and number of metastatic lymph nodes. Disease free rates according to number of metastatic lymph nodes 93% (0-3; group a), 72% (4-10; group b), 32% (11-26; group c), 22% (27-; group d), with significant differences between each 2 groups. In group a and c, there were no significant differences according to the extent of lymph node metastasis (from n₁ to n_3,4), stage (from stage II to stage IV) and depth of invasion (from pm to se. sei). The number of metastatic lymph nodes proved to be a relatively independent prognostic factor by comparing the coefficient of correlation between the 2 factors. Multivariate analysis using Cox's proportional hazard model revealed that the number of lymph node metastases was the most important prognostic indicator for recurrence in patients with curative or relatively non-curative stomach resection.

Key words
number of metastatic lymph nodes of gastric cancer, prognostic factor, multivariate analysis, Cox proportional hazard model

Reprint requests
Tetsuro Nishida Department of Surgery, Chikushi Hospital, Fukuoka University
377-1 Zokumyouin, Chikushino-shi, Fukuoka, 818 JAPAN

Accepted
July 5, 1995

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.