OBJECTIVETo evaluate the correlations between extranodal metastasis(EM)and clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer and the relationship between EM and prognosis of gastric cancer.

METHODSData of patients with histologically proven adenocarcinoma were studied retrospectively to evaluate the prognostic factors in gastric cancer by univariate and multivariate analyses of Cox regression with SPSS 13.0 software. Two hundred and seventy-six patients with primary gastric cancer undergone operation in Tianjin Cancer Hospital from Jan. 2001 to Dec. 2001 were studied and followed up until Dec. 2006 or death.

RESULTSEMs were found in 58(21.0%) of the 276 patients. The overall 2-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates of the patients without EM were 71.2%, 55.4%, and 45.1% respectively. The overall 2-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates of the patients with EM were 24.1%, 15.5%, and 8.0% respectively. Postoperative overall survival rates were significantly lower for patients with EM than those without EM(P=0.000). EM was correlated with differentiation (r=0.163, P=0.008), invasive depth (r=0.215, P=0.003), lymph node metastasis (r=0.368, P=0.000), distant metastasis (r=0.375, P=0.000), advanced stage(r=0.441, P=0.000), and tumor size (r=0.167, P=0.007). Multivariate analysis identified EM as an independent prognostic factor.

CONCLUSIONSEM is correlated with many clinicopathological features of gastric cancer. EM is an independent prognostic factor of gastric cancer.