[Prognostic factors in stomach carcinoma]

The classical prognostic factors of the pTNM system are still most valid. Nevertheless, vascular invasion as well as the molecular marker E-cadherin proved to be independent new prognostic factors responsible for a significant shift in patient survival. Thus, in pTNM-stage II patients, a highly significant drop in survival is observed when patients showing no E-cadherin expression and at the same time vascular invasion are compared with E-cadherin-positive patients who do not show vascular invasion (Fig. 11). These conspicious shifts in survival underline the necessity to continue our search for new molecular and non-molecular markers which in future may help us to predict the outcome of gastric cancer patients more precisely and more individually.