Tumor differentiation as related to sentinel lymph node status in gastric cancer

AIM:To investigate the influence of tumor grade on sentinel lymph node(SLN)status in patients with gastric cancer(GC).METHODS:We retrospectively studied 71 patients with GC who underwent SLN mapping during gastric surgery to evaluate the relationship between SLN status and tumor grade.RESULTS:Poorly differentiated tumors were detected in 50/71 patients,while the other 21 patients had moderately differentiated tumors.SLNs were identified in 58/71 patients(82%).In 41 of the 58 patients that were found to have stained nodes(70.7%),the tumor was of the poorly differentiated type(groupⅠ),while in the remaining patients with stained nodes 17/58(29.3%),the tumor was of the moderately differentiated type(groupⅡ).Positive SLNs were found in22/41 patients in group I(53.7%)and in 7/17 patients in groupⅡ(41.2%)(P=0.325).The rate of positivity for the SLNs in the two groups(53.7%vs 41.2%)was not statistically significant(P=0.514).CONCLUSION:Most of our patients were found to have poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the stomach and there was no correlation between tumor grade and SLN involvement.