Background: This study aimed to elucidate the intensive effect of the number of positive niduses in extranodal soft tissues (PNESTs) on the overall survival of gastric cancer (GC) patients after curative gastrectomy.
Methods: The clinicopathological data of 961 GC patients were studied to determine whether increased number of PNESTs was a high-risk factor for the dismal prognosis of GC patients.
Results: Survival analyses revealed that the number of PNESTs was negatively associated with the overall survival (OS) (P<0.001) and was an independent prognostic predictor (HR=1.360, P<0.001) for the 961 GC patients. The number of PNESTs, with the smallest BIC value (421.947, P=0.018), was identified as the most intensive independent predictor of prognosis for the 961 GC patients. Correlation analyses showed that the pT stage, pN stage, pTNM classification, tumor size, and type of gastrectomy were significantly related to the number of PNESTs, and that tumor size was the most closely relevant factor in all included GC patients. These findings revealed that increased number of PNESTs was suitable to evaluate the dismal prognosis of GC patients.
Conclusions: The number of PNESTs is an important high-risk clinicopathological characteristic for improving the accuracy of prognostic evaluation of GC patients.
Keywords: Stomach; neoplasm; nidus; prognosis; soft tissue.
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