Pattern of lymph node spread in gastric cancer: Western multicenter retrospective study

Gastric cancer is a biologically heterogeneous disease with variable patterns of lymph node (LN) metastasis influenced by tumour biology and anatomical location. Contemporary Western data on LN dissemination remain limited.

This retrospective multicentre study evaluated data from patients with resectable gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent curative-intent gastrectomy at five high-volume European centres. LN retrieval and metastatic involvement were analysed according to tumour location, Lauren histotype, pathological (p) stage, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and microsatellite status (microsatellite instability (MSI) or microsatellite stable (MSS)). Lymph node stations were analysed individually and grouped into three anatomical tiers based on proximity to the stomach, according to the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association classification.

In all, 950 patients were included in the study. The incidence of LN metastasis in diffuse and mixed histotypes was approximately twice that of intestinal-type tumours, along with higher metastatic rates across multiple perigastric first-tier and selected second-tier stations (P < 0.050 to P < 0.001). The anatomical pattern of lymphatic spread was site-specific, with consistent drainage pathways across tumour locations. In early gastric cancer, LN metastases were rare and largely confined to stations 3 and 4. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy reduced overall nodal burden without altering the anatomical distribution of metastatic stations. MSI tumours exhibited lower nodal involvement than MSS tumours, with higher rates of node-negative disease (49.3% versus 41.3%) and fewer patients with pN3 tumours (15.9% versus 27.7%; P = 0.044).

Tumour location influenced the anatomical pattern of LN spread, whereas histological and molecular features were associated with differences in metastatic risk and extent. The integration of biological and anatomical factors may support more tailored surgical strategies.