Significance of the lymph nodes in the 7th station in rational dissection for metastasis of distal gastric cancer with different T categories

Objective

To determine the clinicopathological characteristics, and evaluate the appropriate extent of lymph node dissection in distal gastric cancer patients with comparable T category.

Methods

A retrospective study was conducted on 570 distal gastric cancer patients, who underwent gastric resection with D2 nodal dissection, which was performed by the same surgical team from January 1997 to January 2011. We compared the differences in lymph node metastasis rates and metastatic lymph node ratios between different T categories. Additionally, we investigated the impact of lymph node metastasis in the 7^th station on survival rate of distal gastric cancer patients with the same TNM staging.

Results

Among the 570 patients, the overall lymph node metastasis rate of advanced distal gastric cancer was 78.1%, and the metastatic lymph node ratio was 27%. The lymph node metastasis rate in the 7^th station was similar to that of perigastric lymph nodes. There was no statistical significance in patients with the same TNM stage (stage II and III), irrespective of the metastatic status in the 7^th station.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that to a certain extent, it is reasonable to include lymph nodes in the 7^th station in the D1 lymph node dissection.