Patients with Gastric Cancer and Their Prognosis in Accordance with Number of Lymph Node Metastases

Abstract

From January 1974 to December 1984,2715 patients with gastric cancer were admitted to the Dept. of Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital. Two hundred and fourteen patients with gastric cancer, stage I-III, who were admitted from 1974 to 1977 were followed up, and survival rates were studied. We have found that the patients who had three or less positive lymph nodes had a better prognosis than the patients who had more than four positive lymph nodes. It is therefore reasonable to modify the present UICC staging of gastric cancer with regard to the number of lymph node metastases.

Key Words:

• Gastric cancer
• number of lymph nodes
• prognosis
• staging
• survival rate
• TNM classification