Gastric cancer--patterns of relapse after surgical resection.

A knowledge of patterns of relapse after initial treatment with surgery alone is essential to determining the relative importance of both local (irradiation) and systemic adjuvants (chemotherapy, other) to surgery. A presentation of anatomic factors and pathways of tumor spread provides a basis for understanding the subsequent patterns of relapse data found in clinical, autopsy, and reoperative series. Implications for adjuvant therapy are summarized. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.