Nodal staging in adenocarcinoma of the gastro-esophageal junction. Proposal of a specific staging system.

PURPOSE: This study was aimed at developing a proper nodal staging system for GEJ adenocarcinoma.

METHODS: The study analyzed 113 patients with GEJ adenocarcinoma consecutively resected at the Department of General Surgery and Surgical Oncology of the University of Siena and at the Department of General Surgery of the University of Verona. Both the number (TNM) and site (JGCA) of lymph node metastasis was evaluated in considering nodal staging.

RESULTS: The TNM and JGCA staging systems coincided only in 56.3% of cases. Nodal involvement resulted to be the most important prognostic factor considering both the staging systems (P < 0.001). An extremely poor prognosis and a prominent risk of death were observed for patients with more than six metastatic nodes (TNM pN2-3) as well as for patients with involvement of second and third tier nodes (JGCA pN2-3) (P < 0.001). The combined prognostic significance of the two classifications showed a similar risk of death for patients with less than seven metastatic nodes (TNM pN1) located beyond the first tier (JGCA pN2-3) and for patients with more than six involved nodes (TNM pN2-3) independently from the interested level (JGCA pN1-3). Accordingly, these classes were pooled together and four classes considered: pN0, TNM-JGCA pN1, TNM pN2-3 or JGCA pN2-3, M1a (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: The combination of the TNM and JGCA staging systems herein proposed is extremely practical from a clinical point of view and leads to the stratification of pN+ patients in two classes only with very different risk of death.