Background and objectives: This study investigated the prognostic impact of lymphatic invasion on the outcome of patients with node-negative gastric cancer.
Methods: A total of 828 patients with node-negative gastric cancer who underwent curative gastrectomy were reviewed retrospectively. The clinicopathological features and prognoses of patients with lymphatic invasion were compared to those of patients without such invasion.
Results: The total rate of lymphatic invasion was 18.2% in node-negative gastric cancers, with a significant difference between early gastric cancers (9.8%) and advanced gastric cancers (49.2%). The presence of lymphatic invasion correlated significantly with tumor location, size and depth of tumor (P < 0.01). Lymphatic invasion was significantly associated with a poorer overall survival in node-negative gastric cancer patients on univariate analysis (P < 0.001) as well as multivariate analysis (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: Lymphatic invasion provides additional useful information that could be applied to identify patients at high risk for recurrence who might be candidates for adjuvant therapies in patients with node-negative gastric cancers.