Prognostic factors for recurrence in stage II and III gastric cancer patients receiving a curative resection and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy

Prognostic value of clinicopathologic factors and biologic markers was anal yzed in 185 patients who received a curative resection and adjuvant chemoth erapy of pathologically confirmed stage II or III gastric cancer. No differ ence was found between the chemotherapeutic regimens according to the frequ ency of recurrence, but tumor type, histology, depth of invasion, nodal met astasis, and lymphatic and venous invasion were significantly different bet ween recurrent (n=62) and non-recurrent (n=123) patients. However, the degr ee of lymphatic dissection and the patterns of biological markers (DNA ploi dy, p53 staining and PCNA labeling) were not different. Hepatic metastasis and venous invasion were more frequent on patients recurring within one yea r, compared to those who recurred later. Multivariate analyses showed that depth of invasion, level 2 lymph node metastasis and tumor histology were r isk factors for recurrence. Pathologic factors were more important for pred icting recurrence than biological markers.