Significance of lymph node micrometastases in advanced gastric cancer

초록

Lymph node metastasis is one of the most important prognostic factors in gastric cancer. But, it can remain undetected by conventional histopathologic examination with hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining. Several methods have been introduced to improve the detection rate of micrometastasis and the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using immunohistochemical staining with the anti-cytokeratin antibody to ascertain the incidence of micrometastasis in 48 patients with advanced gastric cancer who had been diagnosed as node-negative by H&E staining. Lymph node micrometastasis was found in 15 (31.3%) of the 48 patients, and in 33 (1.75%) of 1884 lymph nodes. Among the clinicopathological variables, only lymphatic invasion was determined to be significantly associated with micrometastasis status. Over an average follow-up period of 21 months, the recurrence and mortality rate were not significantly associated with micrometastasis status.