Clinical correlation of endoscopic ultrasonography with pathologic stage and outcome in patients undergoing curative resection for gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is considered valuable for preoperative staging of gastric cancer and defining patient eligibility for enrollment in neoadjuvant protocols. The aim of this study was to correlate EUS staging with pathologic evaluation and outcome in patients undergoing curative R0 resection for gastric cancer.

METHODS: All patients who underwent preoperative clinical assessment of T/N stage with EUS and subsequent R0 resection for gastric adenocarcinoma between 1993 and 2003 were identified from a prospective database. Patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy were excluded. Clinical staging results from preoperative EUS were compared with postoperative pathologic staging results and correlated with clinical outcome.

RESULTS: Two hundred twenty-five patients with gastric cancer underwent EUS followed by R0 resection, without preoperative chemotherapy. The accuracy of the individual EUS T stage was 57% (127 of 223) and was 50% for N stage (110 of 218). Although EUS was less able to predict outcome according to individual T stage, patients with lesions or=T3. Preoperative assessment of risk was not predicted by EUS N stage alone. Patients identified as high risk on EUS and those with a combination of serosal invasion and nodal disease had both the highest concordance with pathology and a significantly worse outcome (P = .02).

CONCLUSIONS: The concordance between EUS and pathologic results was lower than expected for individual T and N stages. Patients with lesions