Resection of liver metastasis from gastric adenocarcinoma

To determine the factors influencing the prognosis of patients undergoing resection of liver metastases from gastric adenocarcinoma.

Over a 10-year period, at Kiryu Kousei General Hospital, 12 patients underwent potentially curative hepatectomy for metastatic adenocarcinoma of gastric origin. Two patients were excluded from this study, one because of postoperative death and one due to insufficient follow-up. We retrospectively examined the following factors: including TNM classification of the primary tumor, disease-free interval between gastric and hepatic resection, number and maximum diameter of the metastases, histological differentiation of the metastases, and the presence of lymphocyte aggregation enclosing the metastatic lesions. Survival rates were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the weighting of each factor was compared by the log-rank test.

The overall 5-year survival rate of the 10 patients was 10%. The median survival time after hepatectomy was 16.3 months, ranging from 3.1 to 245.7 months. Eight patients died of recurrent cancer and 1 died of unrelated septic shock with no evidence of cancer recurrence. Only one patient was alive without recurrence at the time of maximum follow-up. A significant survival advantage was noted in patients with disease-free interval > or = 1 year, and those with metastatic tumors < 5 cm in maximum diameter and/or enclosed by the aggregated lymphocytes, when compared with patients with disease-free interval < 1 year and those with metastatic tumors > or = 5 cm and/or directly infiltrated hepatic parenchyma.

It was suggested that hepatectomy should be attempted in patients where the disease-free interval was > or = 1 year and with metastatic nodules < 5 cm. Lymphocyte aggregation around the metastatic tumor is a good prognostic sign for long-term survival.