Characterization of lymph node metastasis and its clinical significance in the surgical treatment of gastric cancer

This study aimed to characterize lymph node metastasis and determine its clinical significance in the surgical treatment of gastric cancer. The medical charts of 920 gastric cancer patients who underwent radical surgical resection between March, 2010 and March, 2013, were retrospectively reviewed and statistically analyzed. Lymphatic metastasis was observed in 69.6% of the patients (640/920). The frequency of lymph node metastasis in patients with early-stage gastric cancer was 21.4% (18/84). Lymph node metastasis was observed in all the patients with stage IIIC-IV gastric cancer. The incidence of lymph node metastasis was higher among patients with tumors >7 cm in size. The most frequently affected lymph nodes in patients with proximal, central and distal gastric cancer were station no. 1 (34.2%), no. 3 (33.8%) and no. 6 (34.3%) lymph nodes, respectively. The frequency of lymph node metastasis in patients with Borrmann type IV cancer was significantly higher compared to that in patients with other Borrmann type cancers. Our study further demonstrated that lymphatic metastasis is closely correlated with TNM stage, location, depth of invasion and size of gastric tumors. Therefore, we recommend that a sufficient number of lymph nodes be examined from each patient to determine the extent of lymph node dissection based on Borrmann type, location, size, depth of invasion and histology of the cancer.