Lymph node staging in 872 patients with carcinoma of the stomach and the presumed benefit of lymphadenectomy. German Stomach Cancer TNM Study Group.
The incidence of surgically suspected and microscopically proved lymph nodes from adenocarcinoma of the stomach and the results of systematic lymphadenectomy have been studied and correlated to survival rate of 99.4 percent at a follow-up period of five years in 872 patients who underwent resection as a part of a prospective observational study in carcinoma of the proximal and distal parts of the stomach. Surgeons believe that, in the median, only one-fifth of the patients with and without systematic lymphadenectomy had positive nodes, whereas pathologists found almost three-fourths of positive lymph nodes (72.7 percent) in patients with proximal carcinoma of the stomach as compared with those without systematic lymphadenectomy (30.8 percent). The figures for middle and lower third carcinomas were even higher (63.5 versus 13.9 percent and 75.9 versus 27.1 percent). Positive nodes were most common in the perigastric area and their distribution was clearly related to the site of the tumor. Frequently, however, lymph node groups were involved, far from the primary, that is, along the hepatoduodenal ligament in 9 to 19 percent of patients with carcinoma of the proximal part of the stomach and in 7 to 16 percent of patients with carcinoma of the distal part of the stomach. There were some hints of a better survival rate for patients with systematic lymphadenectomy as compared with those without, only for low stage carcinoma of the stomach (TNM stage IA-IB, p = 0.1157, Breslow). We suggest a more extensive operation with gastric resection, always combined with systematic lymphadenectomy if no distant metastases are found.
Keller
E
E
Department of Surgery, Allgemeines Krankenhaus Hamburg-Heidberg, Germany.
Stützer
H
H
Heitmann
K
K
Bauer
P
P
Gebbensleben
B
B
Rohde
H
H
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D015996:Survival Rate