The Prognostic Value of Number of Lymph Node Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer -Using Cox's proportional hazard model-

Norio Yukawa, Makoto Akaike*, Yukio Sugimasa*, Shoji Takemiya* and Toshio Imada

The Department of gastroenterological Center, Yokohama City University Medical Center
*The Department of gastrointestinal Surgery, Kanagawa Cancer Center

Purpose: We compared the prognostic value of the number of lymph node metastases with lymph node factors in the Japanese Classification of Colorectal Carcinoma (JCCC). Methods: We examined the prognostic value in 815 patients who had undergone curative operations for colorectal cancer. Results: No significant difference in overall survival was seen n2, n3 and n4 in the JCCC by univariate analysis. In contrast, the difference in the number of lymph node metastases was significant by univariate and multivariate analysis in overall survival with a linear step-wise progression of the relative risk. In a similar manner to overall survival, no significant difference was seen in disease-free survival among n2, n3 and n4 in the JCCC by univariate analysis. The number of metastatic nodes was significant in disease-free survival by univariate analysis, with a linear step-wise progression of the relative risk shown by multivariate analysis. Discussion: The number of metastatic lymph nodes is an important prognostic factor in patients with colorectal carcinoma. If we examined them intra-operatively, the number of lymph node metastases may be as useful as the location of those for accurate lymph node dissection.

Key words
colorectal cancer, number of lymph node metastasis, TNM classification, Cox's proportional hazard model, prognostic value

Reprint requests
Norio Yukawa The Department of Gastroenterological Center, Yokohama City University Medical Center
4-57 urafunecho, Minami-ku, Yokohama, 232-0024 JAPAN

Accepted
July 23, 2003

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