Para-aortic lymph node dissection for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer

Para-aortic lymph node (No. 16) metastasis has been accepted as a factor responsible for non-curability in gastric cancer surgery. Recently in Japan, after detailed experimental and clinical studies of the lymph flows from the stomach and/or perigastric nodes to these No. 16 nodes, it is now considered to be curable. From 5 autopsy cases, the mean number of No. 16 nodes has been determined to be 43. The frequency of positive No. 16 metastasis (No. 16(+)) was found to be 24%, occurring in 35 of 144 cases with advanced gastric cancer following R3 gastrectomy plus No. 16 dissection. The 5 year-survival rate of R3+ No. 16 dissection was 70.1% in n1(+), 49.8% in n2(+) and 24.3% in n3(+) and had better prognoses (by Kaplan-Meier statistics) than those without dissection of the No. 16 nodes. Only 37 patients in the Japanese literature have had No. 16 dissections, and were confirmed histologically to have had No. 16(+) and subsequently survived more than 5 years. The number of those surviving No. 16(+) can be expected to increase in the near future with the adoption of R3 gastrectomy plus No. 16 dissection.