Lymph-node ratio classification strongly correlates with cancer survivals of patients who underwent r0 resection for gastric cancer with more than 15 nodes harvested.
BACKGROUND
During the last few years, the gastric cancer nodal staging has been extensively revised. Lately, a new system emerged in this field with the purpose of implementing the prognostic stratification: the lymph-node ratio (LNR). The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of the LNR in relation to cancer survivors undergoing resection for gastric adenocarcinoma.


METHODS
Off 227 patients undergoing surgical resection for gastric cancer at our Department, 129 curative gastric resections with more than 15 nodes harvested were selected. The LNR was calculated and patients were stratified into 6 subgroups based on the ratio values. The subgroups were compared for data analysis. Survivals were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the mean follow-up period was 40 months. ROC curves were calculated in order to analyze the performance of the LNR system.


RESULTS
LNR stratification correlated with the stage of the disease, with the rate of patients undergoing chemotherapy and patients presenting with a relapse of disease at follow-up. Moreover, an increased ratio correlated with a worse overall, a disease-free and a disease-specific survival of the patients. The ROC curves documented a significant performance of the stratification system with the endpoints of disease-free and disease-specific survivals.


CONCLUSIONS
LNR stratification correlated with cancer-related survivals in our case series. It is a reliable system that might improve current nodal staging and thereby the identification of patients with a higher risk of recurrence or cancer-related mortality.
Surgical and Medical Department of Translational Medicine, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, University of Rome 'La Sapienza', Rome, Italy.
Laura
L
Lorenzon
Paolo
P
Mercantini
Mario
M
Ferri
Marco
M
La Torre
Alessandra
A
Sparagna
Genoveffa
G
Balducci
Marco
M
Cavallini
Vincenzo
V
Ziparo
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D016019:Survival Analysis