[Prognostic improvement by R1 and R2 lymphadenectomy in stomach carcinoma]

In 1986 systematic R2 lymphadenectomy was introduced into the surgery for gastric carcinoma in our institution. In an historic analysis 381 patients of the years 1980-1992 were investigated. The effect of R2 lymphadenectomy was studied after R0 resection and exclusion of inhospital mortality. 81 matched pairs of patients with and without lymphadenectomy (LA) were restaged according to the latest classification of the UICC (1987) and compared in an univariate and multivariate analysis. A significant improvement of the estimated 5-year survival-rate was only seen in UICC-stages II (p = 0.05), IIIA (p = 0.01) and patients without lymph node metastases (pN0, p = 0.01). The multivariate analysis did not show an independent effect of LA on prognosis but of the oncological parameters pT and pN (p = 0.0001). We conclude that LA improves the prognosis of gastric carcinoma in certain early stages but the effect is not as impressive as expected.