title: Comparison of three lymph node staging schemes for predicting outcome in patients with gastric cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Several node staging schemes have been proposed for gastric cancer. The optimal system remains controversial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with gastric cancer were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, and a Chinese patient cohort was used for independent validation. The prognostic performance of three node staging schemes was compared, involving a number-based scheme (pN), ratio-based scheme (rN) and log odds of positive lymph nodes scheme (LODDS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 12 443 patients in the SEER database and 866 in the Chinese cohort. LODDS provided better discriminatory capacity and higher predictive accuracy than either pN or rN, for patients with gastric cancer in both the SEER database and the Chinese cohort. The multivariable model using the LODDS classification was significantly more predictive than the pN classification. LODDS suffered much less from stage migration and was able efficiently to discriminate the heterogeneity for patients with no nodes involved or all nodes involved, whereas the pN and rN schemes could not.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LODDS showed a clear prognostic superiority over both pN and rN schemes. It could serve as an important reference for the tumour node metastasis (TNM) node classification.
authors: Department of Oncology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
authors: X
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: D-H
authors: DH
authors: Appleby
authors: X
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Gan
authors: J-J
authors: JJ
authors: Wang
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Wan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult