Prognostic significance of the recurrence pattern and risk factors for recurrence in patients with proximal gastric cancer.

Abstract

e15117 Background: The proximal gastric cancer (GC) is usually diagnosed at advanced stage and it had relatively high recurrence rate after curative resection due to high incidence of lymph node metastasis. This study aimed to investigate the pattern and time of recurrence and to evaluate the risk factors for relapse of proximal GC. Methods: Between 2000 and 2012,110 patients with recurrent proximal GC undergoing radical gastrectomy were retrospectively analyzed.The prognostic significance of the recurrence time and pattern at the diagnosis of relapse and the relationship between the pattern of recurrence and the other clinicopathological factors were evaluated. Results: The median time to recurrence was 34 months, 52.7% of patients had relapse within 2 years. The most recurrence patterns were hematogenous and peritoneal metastasis, respectively (47.3 and 39.1%). Hematogenous and loco-regional recurrence were significantly associated with younger age (p=0.04) and proximal resection was related with higher incidence of all recurrence patterns (p<0.001). Moreover, advanced pT stage was significantly correlated with increased hematogenous and peritoneal recurrence (p=0.002). The median disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) times for patients with distant-lymph nodes and hematogenous recurrences were significantly worse than those of patients with loco-regional and peritoneal recurrences (DFS, 9.7 vs. 23.4 vs. 35.4 vs. 43.9 months, p=0.014; OS, 19 vs. 46.4 vs. 70.2 vs. 66.8 months, p=0.04, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that the time of recurrence [p<0.001, HR: 0.37), pN stage, clinical stage and surgery type were independent prognostic factors for OS. The presence of lymph node metastasis was an independent risk factor for both overall and early recurrence (p=0.004, OR: 0.51). Conclusions: Our results indicate that the time of recurrence, surgery type, lymph node metastasis and clinical stage were independent prognostic indicators for OS, while only the presence of lymph node metastasis was an independent risk factor for early recurrence. Total gastrectomy and adequate lymph nodes dissection were rational curative treatment option for proximal GC.