Impact of lymphovascular invasion in patients with stage I gastric cancer.
BACKGROUND
Patients with stage I gastric cancer often suffer from tumor recurrence despite a generally favorable operative outcome. It is therefore important to determine the prognostic factors in order to improve such outcomes.


METHODS
Between April 1985 and March 2000, a total of 1,880 patients with histologically proven stage I gastric cancer were included in this study. Operative outcomes (survival time, prognostic factors, pattern of recurrence) were evaluated in these patients.


RESULTS
Multivariate analysis in patients with all stage I gastric cancer revealed that depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and lymphovascular invasion independently influenced prognosis. Moreover, advanced age was selected as an independent prognostic factor in patients with stage IA, and lymphovascular invasion in patients with stage IB gastric cancer by multivariate analyses. The 5-year survival rates in stage T1N1 patients with moderate to severe lymphovascular invasion, T2N0 with moderate to severe lymphovascular invasion, and II were 95.1%, 83.5%, and 76.9%, respectively. There was a significant difference in survival time between stage T1N1 and II (P = .0189) but not between stage T1N1 and T2N0 or stage T2N0 and II.


CONCLUSIONS
T2N0 gastric cancer patients with moderate to severe lymphovascular invasion may be suitable candidates for adjuvant chemotherapy.
Kunisaki
Chikara
C
Department of Surgery, Gastroenterological Center, Yokohama City University, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama, Japan. s0714@med.yokohama-cu.ac.jp
Makino
Hirochika
H
Kimura
Jun
J
Takagawa
Ryo
R
Kosaka
Takashi
T
Ono
Hidetaka A
HA
Akiyama
Hirotoshi
H
Fukushima
Tadao
T
Nagahori
Yutaka
Y
Takahashi
Masazumiu
M
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D042601:Lymphatic Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011379:Prognosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D015996:Survival Rate; D055815:Young Adult