Abstract
Fifty-five resected cases of cancer of the remnant stomach were divided into those undergoing distal gastrectomy for benign gastroduodenal lesion (group I; n=23) and those for gastric cancer (group II; n=32), and compared with 190 resected cases of primary gastric cancer locating in the upper third of the organ (group III) for clinicopathological features, prognosis and recurrence pattern.
There was no significant difference in histological type, stage, depth of invasion and incidence of peritoneal or liver metastasis among three groups. But the rate of incidence of metastatic lymph node locating in the mesenterium of the jejunum was higher in remnant gastric cancers than in primary gastric cancers. On the contrary, rates of incidence of positive lymph nodes of No 1, 3 and 7 were lower in remnant gastric cancers than those in primary gastric cnacers.
No significant difference was found in prognosis by noncurative and curative resection among three groups. However to recurrent patterns after curative resection, patients with remnant gastric cancer commonly experienced liver and lung metastasis in a high rate of 80.0%, versus 40.0% for patients with primary gastric cancer. This indicates that we should follow up resected patients with cancer of the remnant stomach by entertaining a possible hematogenic recurrence.
