Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 7, 2015; 21(5): 1628-1635
Published online Feb 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i5.1628
Impact of lymph node micrometastasis on gastric carcinoma prognosis: A meta-analysis
Yong-Ji Zeng, Chun-Dong Zhang, Dong-Qiu Dai
Yong-Ji Zeng, Chun-Dong Zhang, Dong-Qiu Dai, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110032, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Zeng YJ and Dai DQ conceived the study; Zeng YJ and Zhang CD collected the data and performed data analysis; Zeng YJ, Zhang CD and Dai DQ designed the study and participated in writing the paper; Zeng YJ and Dai DQ submitted the final manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Grants from Liaoning Province Science and Technology Plan Project, No. 2013225021.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dong-Qiu Dai, MD, Professor, Chief Physician, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Chongshan Eastern Road, Huanggu District, Shenyang 110032, Liaoning Province, China. daidq63@163.com
Telephone: +86-24-62043110 Fax: +86-24-62043110
Received: May 3, 2014
Peer-review started: May 4, 2014
First decision: June 18, 2014
Revised: July 24, 2014
Accepted: November 11, 2014
Article in press: November 11, 2014
Published online: February 7, 2015
Processing time: 281 Days and 20.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: This is the first meta-analysis describing the effect of lymph node micrometastasis (LNMM) on gastric carcinoma prognosis worldwide. LNMM positivity was associated with a worse prognosis compared with LNMM negativity. The effects of LNMM positivity in patients with gastric cancer of different T-stages remain unclear. LNMM in patients with gastric carcinoma was also associated with a higher recurrence rate. With regards to the number of patients who died in five years, Asian patients were worse than European and Australian patients.