Regional lymph node metastasis as a predictor of peritoneal carcinomatosisin patients with Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma

Objective: Postoperative survival of patients with Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma is significantly worse than that in patients with other Borrmann types of gastric carcinomas. The most common pattern of recurrence in pati ents with Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma is peritoneal metastasis. We e xamined the predictors of developing peritoneal metastasis. Methods: We ret rospectively analyzed the relationship between peritoneal metastasis and Bo rrmann type IV gastric carcinoma. We also examined the dependence of the pe ritoneal metastasis on clinicopathological findings. Results: Borrmann type IV was an independent prognostic factor of survival by multivariate analys is, and regional lymph node metastasis was an independent predictor of peri toneal metastasis in patients with Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma. Conc lusion: Because type of lymph node dissection was not associated with devel oping peritoneal metastasis, early detection of cancer without lymph node m etastasis may be the only means of improving survival in patients with Borr mann type IV gastric cancer. (Am J Gastroenterol 1999;94:434-437, (C) 1999 by Am. Cell. of Gastroenterology).