Clinicopathological features of the superficial spreading type of early gastric cancer

Abstract

BACKGROUND: During a 10-year period (1986-1995), 59 of 538 patients with early gastric cancer (11.0%) had the superficial spreading type of gastric cancer. We attempted to elucidate the clinicopathological features and investigated the influence of those features on surgical procedures and patient prognoses.METHODS: These 59 superficial spreading lesions were analyzed with respect to macroscopic type, lymph node (LN) metastasis, recurrent pattern, and method of surgical operation. In addition, the lesions were compared with those of 393 other patients with small-sized cancer.RESULTS: In both groups, the IIc type macroscopic lesion occurred most frequently, and the depressed subtype occurred more frequently than the elevated subtype. There was no significant histologic difference between the groups. The incidence of LN metastasis was 8.7% in early gastric cancer, 7.1% in small-sized cancer, and 20.3% in superficial spreading cancer. The incidence of lymphovascular invasion was 24.4% in small-sized cancer and 50.8% in superficial spreading cancer. The incidences of LN metastasis and lymphovascular invasion were greater in superficial spreading cancer than in small-sized cancer. Despite extensive preoperative examination, determination of the tumor margin was impossible in 26 of the 59 patients with superficial spreading cancer. The incidence of recurrence was 2.0% in small-sized cancer and 5.1% in superficial spreading cancer.CONCLUSIONS: A wide resection with extensive lymph node dissection (D2 or more) seems to be an appropriate treatment for the superficial spreading type of early gastric cancer.