Clinicopathological study for gastric cancer with liver metastasis

Clinicopathological characteristics, stromal volume (Vvf), nuclear DNA content and cell protein were retrospectively analyzed in order to scrutinize the risk factors of hepatic metastasis from carcinoma of the stomach. We conducted a clinicopathological study of 327 patients with gastric cancer, including 34 patients with liver metastasis (synchronous, 22; metachronous, 12) and 294 patients without liver metastasis. Univariate analysis revealed significant inter-group differences in tumor size (p<0.001), depth of invasion (p<0.001), lymph node metastasis (p<0.001), vascular involvement (p<0.001), lymphatic involvement (p<0.001), peritoneal dissemination (p<0.05), Vvf (p<0.01) and DNA content (p<0.01). Vvf and DNA content were estimated in the liver metastasis group (n=20) and in the group of patients with stage III-IVa carcinoma but without liver metastasis (n=11). In multivariate analysis, only Vvf and DNA content showed significant correlations with liver metastasis (p<0.01). A comparison of Vvf and expression of the amount of interstitial connective tissue showed that there as a significant correlation between them. Our results indicate that gastric cancer with low Vvf and high DNA content carries a high risk of hepatic metastasis. Therefore, mean DNA content and Vvf are useful indices for predicting liver metastasis from gastric carcinoma.