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Histopathological predictor for regional lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer

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Abstract

Regional lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer is a definitive indicator of the patient’s prognosis. The goal of this study was to identify the predictors for lymph node metastasis among all the possible histopathological parameters, especially by conducting an objective discrimination of the lymphatic and blood vessels. A total of 210 resected primary gastric cancers with or without lymph node metastasis were evaluated based on the conventional histopathological parameters together with immunohistochemistry using antisera-recognizing lymphatic endothelial hyaluronan receptor-1 (LYVE-1), von Willebrand factor, and lymphangiogenesis promoter vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) antibodies. A multivariate regression analyses of the results indicated that only lymphatic invasion was a significant independent predictor of lymph node metastasis at any stage of cancer invasion. VEGF-C expression was partially related to lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer. The identification of lymphatic invasion by LYVE-1 antibody is therefore useful to predict regional lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer.

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Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to Ms. E. Ohnishi and Ms. T. Sato for their skillful technical assistance throughout the study. This work was partly supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (no. 19590368) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

Conflict of interest statement

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, Japan

    Hiroshi Morita, Yukio Ishikawa, Kinji Ito, Yoshikiyo Akasaka & Toshiharu Ishii

  2. Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine (Omori), School of Medicine, Toho University, 6-11-1 Omorinishi, Ota-ku, Tokyo, 143-8541, Japan

    Hiroshi Morita, Yoshinori Igarashi & Kazumasa Miki

  3. Pathology Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuri Akishima-Fukasawa

  4. Department of Medical Informatics, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, Japan

    Chiaki Nishimura

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  1. Hiroshi Morita
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  2. Yukio Ishikawa
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Correspondence to Hiroshi Morita.

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Morita, H., Ishikawa, Y., Akishima-Fukasawa, Y. et al. Histopathological predictor for regional lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer. Virchows Arch 454, 143–151 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-008-0717-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-008-0717-3

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