title: Occult neoplastic cells in lymph node sinuses and recurrence/metastasis of stage II/III gastric cancer.
abstract: In the present study, we investigated the correlation between the presence of occult neoplastic cells (ONCs) in lymph node sinuses and recurrence/metastasis of stage II/III gastric cancer in 164 patients who underwent radical curative resection. We calculated the five-year relapse-free survival rate (5Y-RFS) and five-year overall survival rate (5Y-OS) of the ONC(+) and ONC(-) groups. The 5Y-RFS was 71.4% in the ONC(-) group and 47.5% in the ONC(+) group (P=0.003). The 5Y-OS was 68.8 and 48.4%, respectively (P=0.008). ONCs were found in 34.8% of stage II patients and were also detected in 66.7% of stage III patients. For distinguishing between the recurrence and non-recurrence groups, the sensitivity of ONC(+) was 64.5% (40/62; P=0.003), the positive predictive value (PPV) was 49.4% (40/81), the specificity was 59.8% (61/102) and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 73.5% (61/83). This high sensitivity indicates that ONC positivity may be a significant indicator for high-risk patients in the early postoperative period, and a lack of ONCs may be a useful indicator for identifying low-risk patients, as patients without ONCs had a high NPV.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Tokai University School of Medicine, Bohseidai, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1193, Japan ; Department of Pathology, Isehara Kyodo Hospital, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1132, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasutomo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sekido
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mukai
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamazaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tajima
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Souichirou
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Sayuri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Kyoko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kishima
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Takuma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tajiri
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Tokai University School of Medicine, Bohseidai, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1193, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakamura
keywords: cytokeratin immnohistochemical staining; gastric cancer; occult neoplastic cells; recurrence/metastasis; stage II/III