Background: Lymphatic vessel invasion (LV) has been regarded as a prognostic factor in some solid tumors. The aim was to clarify the impact of lymphatic vessel invasion on survival in curative resected gastric cancer.
Methods: In this retrospective study, we reviewed the records of 1,024 patients who underwent curative resection for gastric cancer. Among all of the studied patients, 285 of them (27.8%) had lymphatic vessel invasion.
Results: There were significant differences in tumor size, tumor location, depth of invasion, and lymph node metastasis (LN) between the patients with lymphatic vessel invasion and those without. The 5-year survival rates in patients were 80.1%, 59.2%, 40.9%, and 30.5% for LN-LV-, LN-LV+, LN+LV-, and LN+LV+ group, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that age, tumor location, the depth of invasion, and lymph node metastasis were independent prognostic factors for curative resected gastric cancer. Lymphatic vessel invasion was not an independent prognostic factor in node-positive gastric cancer; however, it was true in node-negative gastric cancer.
Conclusion: Lymphatic vessel invasion is one of the independent prognostic factors for node-negative gastric cancer after curative resection.