The clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of node-positive gastric cancer patients after curative surgery.

BACKGROUND: Lymph node (LN) metastasis is one of the independent prognostic factors of gastric cancer (GC). The difference in survival rates and initial recurrence patterns in node-positive GC patients with retrieved LN numbers greater than or less than 16 is worthy of further study. METHODS: A total of 1314 node-positive GC patients were enrolled. The clinicopathological characteristics, retrieved LN numbers, adjuvant chemotherapy, initial recurrence patterns, and survival differences between serosa-negative and serosa-positive GC were investigated. RESULTS: For serosa-negative GC, patients with retrieved LN numbers >/=16 were associated with fewer tumor recurrences, locoregional recurrences, distant metastases, and better 5-year overall survival (OS) rates and disease-free survival (DFS) rates. For serosa-positive GC, patients with retrieved LN numbers >/=16 were associated with similar locoregional and distant metastasis and similar 5-year OS and DFS rates compared with those with retrieved LN numbers /=16. Multivariate analysis showed that both the retrieved LN numbers (>/= or /=16. Due to a high tumor recurrence rate in serosa-positive GC, adjuvant chemotherapy rather than retrieved LN numbers played an important role in improving patient prognosis.