Prognostic and influential factors of gastric stump cancer

Abstract

Gastric stump cancer was first defined as cancer occurring in the remnant stomach 5 years or later following distal subtotal gastrectomy of a benign stomach tumor. This definition was expanded to include malignant gastric cancer recurrence following distal gastrectomy and heterochronous gastric adenocarcinoma. Evidence regarding whether patients with gastric stump cancer had the same prognosis as those with primary gastric cancer has been inconsistent. Nonetheless, considering the notable differences regarding risk factors, treatment strategies, and lymph node metastasis status, gastric stump cancer should be differentiated from primary stomach cancer. Overall, the prognosis of gastric stump cancer is influenced by clinicopathological characteristics such as primary tumor features, location of gastric stump cancer, histological type, invasion depth, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis, as well as treatment factors such as treatment strategy, dissection range, and lymph node resection range. In previous studies on gastric stump cancer, the sample size was limited, and future studies with larger sample size are needed to further validate the prognostic factors of gastric stump cancer.