Nannan Zhang1, Jingyu Deng2, Wei Wang3, Zhe Sun4, Zhenning Wang4, Huimian Xu5, Zhiwei Zhou6, Han Liang7. 1. Department of Gastric Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Cancer for Cancer, Tianjin, 300060, China. 2. Department of Gastric Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Cancer for Cancer, Tianjin, 300060, China. Electronic address: dengery@126.com. 3. Department of Gastric and Pancreatic Surgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, 510060, China. 4. Department of Surgical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, China. 5. Department of Surgical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, China. Electronic address: xuhuimian@126.com. 6. Department of Gastric and Pancreatic Surgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, 510060, China. Electronic address: zhouzhw@sysucc.org.cn. 7. Department of Gastric Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Cancer for Cancer, Tianjin, 300060, China. Electronic address: tjlianghan@126.com.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To examine the prognostic value of negative lymph node (NLN) count in stage III gastric cancer (GC) patients after curative gastrectomy. METHODS: The clinicopathological data of 2942 stage III patients who underwent curative gastrectomy between 2001 and 2011 were analyzed. Only patients with ≥16 examined lymph nodes (ELNs) were included. After cut-point survival analysis, the 2942 patients were divided into three subgroups with NLN counts of 0, 1-9, and ≥10. Survival differences among the subgroups were analyzed to assess the effects of NLN count on stage migration and overall survival (OS) in stage III GC patients. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationships between the ELN count and the positive lymph node (PLN) count, the ELN count and the NLN count, and the NLN count and the PLN count. RESULTS: Survival analyses revealed that the NLN count was significantly associated with OS (P = 0.001) and was an independent predictor (P < 0.01) of prognosis in stage III GC patients. Subgroup analysis showed that the prognostic evaluation accuracy was highest when the NLN count was ≥10 for stage III patients. Stage migrations were mainly detected in the following pathological tumor-node (pTN) subgroups: pT2N3a with 1-9 NLNs and pT2N3b with ≥10 NLNs, and pT3N3a with 1-9 NLNs and pT3N3b with ≥10 NLNs. NLN count was positively correlated with the ELN and the PLN counts for pT2N3 and pT3N3 stage GC patients (r = 0.694 and r = 0.881 for pT2N3 patients; r = 0.685 and r = 0.902 for pT3N3 patients, respectively; P < 0.001). These findings indicate that the NLN count may be a useful prognostic predictor in stage III GC patients. CONCLUSIONS: The NLN count may improve the prognostic prediction efficiency of the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification for GC, especially for stage III patients, and should be recommended for clinical applications.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the prognostic value of negative lymph node (NLN) count in stage III gastric cancer (GC) patients after curative gastrectomy. METHODS: The clinicopathological data of 2942 stage III patients who underwent curative gastrectomy between 2001 and 2011 were analyzed. Only patients with ≥16 examined lymph nodes (ELNs) were included. After cut-point survival analysis, the 2942 patients were divided into three subgroups with NLN counts of 0, 1-9, and ≥10. Survival differences among the subgroups were analyzed to assess the effects of NLN count on stage migration and overall survival (OS) in stage III GCpatients. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationships between the ELN count and the positive lymph node (PLN) count, the ELN count and the NLN count, and the NLN count and the PLN count. RESULTS: Survival analyses revealed that the NLN count was significantly associated with OS (P = 0.001) and was an independent predictor (P < 0.01) of prognosis in stage III GCpatients. Subgroup analysis showed that the prognostic evaluation accuracy was highest when the NLN count was ≥10 for stage III patients. Stage migrations were mainly detected in the following pathological tumor-node (pTN) subgroups: pT2N3a with 1-9 NLNs and pT2N3b with ≥10 NLNs, and pT3N3a with 1-9 NLNs and pT3N3b with ≥10 NLNs. NLN count was positively correlated with the ELN and the PLN counts for pT2N3 and pT3N3 stage GCpatients (r = 0.694 and r = 0.881 for pT2N3 patients; r = 0.685 and r = 0.902 for pT3N3 patients, respectively; P < 0.001). These findings indicate that the NLN count may be a useful prognostic predictor in stage III GCpatients. CONCLUSIONS: The NLN count may improve the prognostic prediction efficiency of the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification for GC, especially for stage III patients, and should be recommended for clinical applications.