Abstract:

Aim: Aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of metastatic lymph node ratio (MLNR) staging in gastric cancer patients who underwent curative D2 lymph node dissection. Place and Duration of Study: Department of General Surgery, University of Health Sciences, Prof Dr Cemil Tascıoğlu City Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey, from January 2012 to April 2021. Methods: Medical records of 171 patients undergoing D2 curative gastrectomy for locally advanced gastric cancer between January 2012 and April 2021 were reviewed retrospectively. Metastatic lymph node ratio (MLNR) and TNM staging system node ( Ns )staging was evaluated. Prognostic factors on overall and disease-free survival (DFS) were evaluated. MLNR was compared with number of lymph node metastasis. Results: Mean age of patients included in present study was 60.7 (male: N = 118; female: N = 53). Based on TNM N staging, 62 patients N0, 25 patients N1, 35 patients N2, and 49 were N3 patients. According to classification based on metastatic lymph node ratio (MLNR), 62 patients MLNR 0, 35 patients MLNR 1, 35 patients MLNR 2 and 39 patients were in the MLNR 3 group. Stage migration were seen in 32 patients ( % 18,7 ) in the classification of MLNR. Cox regression survival analysis showed MLNR is an independent prognostic factor. Conclusions: It has been found that using MLNR staging instead of number of positive lymph nodes in nodal evaluation can help to reduce the problem of stage migration. MLNR is an important prognostic factor for both OS and DFS.

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