Clinicopathologic Characteristics of and Prognosis for Patients with a Borrmann Type IV Gastric Carcinoma

Abstract

Purpose: The prognosis for patients with a Borrmann type IV gastric cancer is extremely poor despite an aggressive surgical approach. We evaluated the clinicopathological features for Borrmann type IV cancers to find treatment strategy. Materials and Methods: The 1098 patients with advanced gastric cancer who underwent surgical resection between 1990 and 2001 were analyzed. These patients were divided into two groups: 81 patients with a Borrmann type IV carcinoma, and 1017 patients with all other types of gastric carcinomas. Results: Patients with a Borrmann type IV carcinoma were younger than those with other types, and female was prevalent (p=0.000). Of the patients with a Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma, 68 patients (84%) were classified as stage III or IV at the initial diagnosis. The histologic type was commonly undifferentiated and serosal infiltration; nodal involvement and lymphatic invasion were more frequent in patients with a Borrmann type IV than in those with other types of cancer. Multivariate analysis confirmed that the extent of lymph node metastasis was a negative prognostic factor for Borrmann type IV gastric carcinomas. The curability for a Borrmann type IV carcinoma was only 53.1%, and peritoneal dissemination rate was 25.9%. The predominant pattern of recurrence for a Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma was peritoneal dissemination, and it was significantly different with other types (93.1% vs 55.8%, P