Length of negative resection margin does not affect local recurrence and survival in the patients with gastric cancer

Table 1 Demographics and clinicopathologic characteristics n (%)

	EGC	AGC
	(n = 1001)	(n = 787)
Sex (male:female)	668:333	520:267
Age (yr)	59.0 ± 11.5	59.4 ± 12.5
Tumor size (cm)	2.9 ± 1.8	5.8 ± 3.1
Borrmann type (%)	-	I: 3.3
		II: 16.5
		III: 64.7
		IV: 10.2
		V: 1.4
WHO classification (%)	Differentiated: 58.8	Differentiated: 37.6
	Undifferentiated: 40.2	Undifferentiated: 62.0
Lauren classification (%)	Intestinal: 57.3	Intestinal: 36.5
	Diffuse: 34.9	Diffuse: 55.3
Operation method (DG:TG)	915:86	539:248
Lymphatic invasion (%)	14.6	68
Vascular invasion (%)	1.2	20.5
Perineural invasion (%)	2.4	62.8
Harvested lymph nodes	40.2 ± 15.0	49.6 ± 19.5
Positive lymph nodes	0.4 ± 2.4	6.7 ± 9.6
Proximal resection margin (cm)	3.6 ± 2.4 (0.1-16.5)	3.3 ± 2.6 (0.1-13.5)
Distal resection margin (cm)	5.7 ± 3.8 (0.1-25.5)	5.6 ± 4.7 (0.1-26.2)
Stage (%)	I: 96.1	I: 14.1
	II: 3.9	II: 31.8
	III: 0.0	III: 48.5
	IV: 0.0	IV: 5.6
Recurrence	19 (1.9)	233 (29.6)
Local recurrence	6 (0.6)	29 (3.7)

The cases involving local recurrence included 5 stump recurrences in EGC and 11 stump recurrences in AGC. EGC: The group including the patients undergoing gastrectomy for early gastric cancer; AGC: The group including the patients undergoing gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer; DG: Distal gastrectomy; TG: Total gastrectomy.