Prognostic Indicators in Node-Negative Advanced Gastric Cancer Patients

Background and Objectives: Despite carrying better overall prognoses, some node-negative gastric cancer patients die from recurrent malignancies. Identifying factors associated with disease-specific survival in adequately staged node-negative gastric cancer is important. as these patients are presumably free of microscopic regional metastases and may derive significant benefit from existing or future adjuvant strategies. Methods: To investigate significant prognostic indicators in node-negative advanced gastric cancer patients, we reviewed 777 advanced gastric cancer patients who had undergone curative gastrectomies. Results: The 5-year survival rate of node-negative advanced gastric cancer patients is 84.9%, which is significantly better than that of patients with lymph node metastasis. Multivariate analysis indicated that tumor size, histology, and depth of invasion are independent prognostic factors. The 5-year survival rate of patients with larger tumors (>= 7 cm), poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and serosal invasion was 49.1%, which was significantly worse that of patients with fewer or none of these factors. Conclusions: Tumor size, histology, and the presence of serosal invasion are strong indicators of poor prognosis in node-negative advanced gastric cancer patients. J. Srug. Oncol. 2010;101:622-625. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.