REGIONAL LYMPHATIC METASTASES OF CARCINOMA OF THE STOMACH

The low incidence of five year cures after partial gastric resection for carcinoma of the stomach is discouraging. However, it is easily explained by the insidiousness of the disease in its early stages; by the time the symptoms become sufficiently alarming to make the patient seek medical aid, the condition is often inoperable. The elimination of certain factors to be discussed later should increase the number of five year cures. This study, similar to one we made of the regional lymphatic metastases of carcinoma of the rectum 1 and colon, 2 is based on the dissection and examination of all the regional lymph nodes in 53 cases of carcinoma of the stomach. Fifty-one of the patients had previous partial to subtotal gastric resection, and 2 came to autopsy. The lymph nodes were dissected from each specimen after they had been visualized (fig. 1) by clearing by the Gilchrist and David