LYMPHANGITIS CARCINOMATOSIS OF THE LESSER OMENTUM - A PROGNOSTIC FACTOR IN GASTRIC-CANCER

A series of 126 patients with gastric cancer who underwent radical gas trectomy with systemic lymph node dissection revealed 9 patients who s urvived for a median time of only 3 months. Of these 9 patients, 4 wer e classified by the UICC system as stage II and 5 as stage III, all of whom had lymphangitis carcinomatosis of the lesser omentum. These dat a suggest that although lymphangitis carcinomatosis of the lesser omen tum is an uncommon finding, if it is present, curative surgery is impo ssible and an operation should therefore be limited to tumor palliatio n.