Evaluation of the impact of tumor deposits on prognosis in gastric cancer and a proposal for their incorporation into the AJCC staging system

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of tumor deposits (TDs) in patients with gastric cancer after radical gastrectomy. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 1518 patients who had undergone radical gastrectomy in Zhongshan Hospital between 2003 and 2011. Correlations between TDs and other clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analysis of prognostic factors were conducted. The predictive ability of different staging systems incorporating TDs were evaluated. Results The presence of TDs was found in 193 (13%) specimens. Large tumor size, proximal part, poor differentiated histology, advanced T stage, advanced N stage, lymphovascular invasion and perineural invasion were more common for patients with TDs. The Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed that survival of patients with TDs was significantly poorer than those without (P  Conclusions The presence of TDs is an independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer patients. The TNM staging system would be more effective to predict the prognosis for gastric cancer patients after incorporating TDs using our revised scheme.