Regional lymph node metastasis as a predictor of peritoneal carcinomatosis in 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 patients with Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma is peritoneal metastasis. We examined the predictors of developing peritoneal metastasis.

METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the relationship between peritoneal metastasis and Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma. We also examined the dependence of the peritoneal metastasis on clinicopathological findings.

RESULTS: Borrmann type IV was an independent prognostic factor of survival by multivariate analysis, and regional lymph node metastasis was an independent predictor of peritoneal metastasis in patients with Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma.

CONCLUSION: Because type of lymph node dissection was not associated with developing peritoneal metastasis, early detection of cancer without lymph node metastasis may be the only means of improving survival in patients with Borrmann type IV gastric cancer.