Tumor volume: a novel prognostic factor in patients who undergo curative resection for gastric cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The present study evaluates the significance of tumor volume as a prognostic factor in gastric cancer.


METHODS
Tumor volume was measured from serial tissue sections of 101 patients who had undergone curative resection for solitary carcinoma of the stomach using a computer graphics analysis program. These patients were analyzed with respect to survival based on univariate and multivariate analyses of clinicopathological factors, including tumor volume, to determine an independent prognostic factor.


RESULTS
Significant differences in survival were found with respect to depth of tumor invasion (P=0.001), status of lymph-node metastasis (P=0.018), tumor diameter (P=0.005), and tumor volume (P<0.0001) based on univariate analysis. However, multivariate analysis indicated only tumor volume as a valid factor in determining prognosis among the nine variables and was significantly associated with the prognosis (P=0.0005; relative risk 18.23; 95% confidence interval 3.52-94.37).


CONCLUSIONS
The present findings indicate that tumor volume is an important prognostic factor in patients who undergo curative resection for gastric cancer and may be an alternative to conventional factors, thus providing a novel independent prognostic factor in gastric cancer.
Kikuchi
S
S
Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kitasato University, Kanagawa, Japan.
Hiki
Y
Y
Shimao
H
H
Sakakibara
Y
Y
Kakita
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D016019:Survival Analysis