Possible role of lymph node dissection in the surgical treatment of gastric cancer with disseminating peritoneal metastasis.

qathological background factors of patients with gastric cancer and peritoneal metastasis were studied. In palliatively gastrectomized patients, there was a close relationship between the extent of cancer invasion to the gastric serosa and postoperative survival; the less extensive the serosal invasion, the longer was the survival time. The relationship between the extent of lymph node dissection and postoperative survival showed that, in the presence of metastasis to Group 1 and 2 lymph nodes, many of the long-term survivors had undergone dissection of these lymph nodes. Although a sweeping conclusion should be avoided since retrospective analysis forms the basis of this report, it is assumed that in patients with gastric cancer and peritoneal metastasis, surgery should not be confined to resection of the primary focus, but should include regional lymph node dissection.