[Clinico-pathological studies on the lymph node metastases of the gastric cancer invading to proper muscle layer].

In 65 patients who underwent surgical resection of the gastric cancer invading to proper muscle layer (pm cancer), lymph node involvement at the time of resection and the site of recurrence were investigated. Patients who underwent gastrectomy for submucosal (sm cancer) or subserosal (ss alpha.beta cancer) gastric cancers during the same period served as controls. Lymph node involvement was positive at a higher rate in the pm cancer than in the sm cancer, but the rate for number of lymph node metastases was not dependent on the stage of lesions. Of the lesions in the pm cancer, those of the Borrmann type involved lymph nodes at a particularly high rate. Of the metastatic pattern in the lymph nodes, the rate of severe metastases in pm cancer was higher than in the sm cancer. In the pm cancer, the cancer recurred in the liver and peritoneum, but not in any lymph nodes, thus suggesting that the surgical resection and the dissection of regional lymph nodes had been successful.