Brief Article
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World J Gastrointest Surg. Jan 27, 2014; 6(1): 1-4
Published online Jan 27, 2014. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v6.i1.1
Tumor differentiation as related to sentinel lymph node status in gastric cancer
Ron Lavy, Andronik Kapiev, Yehuda Hershkovitz, Natan Poluksht, Igor Rabin, Bar Chikman, Zahar Shapira, Ilan Wasserman, Judith Sandbank, Ariel Halevy
Ron Lavy, Andronik Kapiev, Yehuda Hershkovitz, Natan Poluksht, Igor Rabin, Bar Chikman, Zahar Shapira, Ilan Wasserman, Ariel Halevy, Division of Surgery, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Zerifin 70300, Israel
Igor Rabin, Department of Vascular Surgery, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Zerifin 70300, Israel
Judith Sandbank, Institute of Pathology, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Zerifin 70300, Israel
Author contributions: Lavy R, Kapiev A and Halevy A conceived and designed the study; Lavy R, Hershkovitz Y, Sandbank J and Halevy A analyzed and interpreted the data; Halevy A performed critical revision of the article for important intellectual content; all authors acquired the data, wrote the draft of the article and gave final approval of the version to be published.
Correspondence to: Ariel Halevy, Professor, Division of Surgery, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Tel-Aviv University, Weizmann 10, Ramat Aviv, Zerifin 70300, Israel. fredricag@asaf.health.gov.il
Telephone: +972-8-9779222 Fax: +972-8-9779225
Received: August 28, 2013
Revised: December 11, 2013
Accepted: December 17, 2013
Published online: January 27, 2014
Processing time: 152 Days and 0.2 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the influence of tumor grade on sentinel lymph node (SLN) status in patients with gastric cancer (GC).

METHODS: We retrospectively studied 71 patients with GC who underwent SLN mapping during gastric surgery to evaluate the relationship between SLN status and tumor grade.

RESULTS: Poorly differentiated tumors were detected in 50/71 patients, while the other 21 patients had moderately differentiated tumors. SLNs were identified in 58/71 patients (82%). In 41 of the 58 patients that were found to have stained nodes (70.7%), the tumor was of the poorly differentiated type (group I), while in the remaining patients with stained nodes 17/58 (29.3%), the tumor was of the moderately differentiated type (group II). Positive SLNs were found in 22/41 patients in group I (53.7%) and in 7/17 patients in group II (41.2%) (P = 0.325). The rate of positivity for the SLNs in the two groups (53.7% vs 41.2%) was not statistically significant (P = 0.514).

CONCLUSION: Most of our patients were found to have poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the stomach and there was no correlation between tumor grade and SLN involvement.

Keywords: Gastric cancer; Sentinel lymph nodes; Tumor differentiation; Sentinel lymph node mapping; Prognosis

Core tip: The application of sentinel lymph node (SLN) sampling in gastric cancer is limited to the early stages of the disease. The results of the sampling, which is usually not one node but rather a group of nodes, might influence the extent of lymphadenectomy to be performed. In a previous study, we clearly showed that the accuracy of SLN testing is inversely proportionate to the T stage of the tumor. In this retrospective study, we evaluated the level of tumor differentiation as related to the SLN status. Our study showed that there was no correlation between tumor differentiation and SLN status.