Research Papers:
Lymph node count is an independent prognostic factor for patients with pathological stage III gastric cancer
Weijun Wang1,*, Houshan Yao1,*, Jun Yao1,*, Haolu Wang2, Xiaowen Liang2, Zhiqian Hu1 and Xinxing Li1
1Department of General Surgery, Changzheng Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200003, China
2Therapeutics Research Centre, The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, The University of Queensland, Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia
*These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence to:
Xinxing Li, email: [email protected]
Zhiqian Hu, email: [email protected]
Keywords:gastric cancer; lymph node; surgery; survival
Received: August 25, 2017 Accepted: March 22, 2018 Published:
ABSTRACT
The relationship between lymph node (LN) count and the outcome of patients with advanced gastric cancer (GC) is still not fully studied. In this study, a total of 3, 419 patients with pathological stage III GC from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) was analyzed. We found that the optimal cutoff value for retrieved LNs was 9 (χ2 = 58.163, P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that LN count was a prognostic factor in patients with pIIIA GC (χ2 = 75.055, P < 0.001), pIIIB GC (χ2 = 32.464, P < 0.001) and pIIIC GC (χ2 = 6.903, P = 0.009). After adjusting variables, the number of LNs was also validated as an independent survival factor in pIIIA GC (LNs > 9, HR: 1.849, 95% CI: 1.571~2.176, P < 0.001), pIIIB GC (LNs > 9, HR: 1.414, 95% CI: 1.221~1.636, P < 0.001) and pIIIC GC (LNs > 9, HR: 1.306, 95% CI: 1.034~1.649, P = 0.025). In conclusion, our results demonstrated that LN count was an independent prognostic factor in patients with pathological stage III GC.