[A study of lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer--a new method for fixing resected specimens with methylene blue...

Lymph node metastasis in 171 cases after a radical resection of the gastric cancer have been studied by means of examining specimens of these lymph nodes fixed with methylene blue formalin. The number of the resected lymph nodes in a single case was 50.3 on the average. By the Appleby method this number was 82.8. The rate of metastasis (the number of cases with lymph node metastasis measured against the number of patients) was 43.9%. The frequency of metastasis (the number of metastasized nodes versus the number of dissected nodes) was 11.3%. When classified by location no difference was noted, but in the group which showed an infiltration of a macroscopic type or an undifferentiated adenocarcinoma, the rate of metastasis and the frequency of metastasis was found to be higher than in the group with a non-infiltration type or a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. Although the metastatic rate of perigastric nodes (No. 1-6 was higher than in the other lymph node group (No. 7-11), no difference was recognized between both groups in the frequency of metastasis.