BACKGROUND: To simulate a D1 lymphadenectomy in 57 patients who had already been submitted to D2 lymphadenectomy, and analyze stage migration using the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association (JGCA) staging system. METHODS:All patients underwent a D2 lymphadenectomy between August 1997 and November 2001. At the end of surgery, the surgeon himself separated all lymph node stations. The parameters analyzed were: sex, age, lymph node invasion and number of dissected nodes. All patients were re-staged based on the new data, in order to evaluate the stage migration according to the JGCA staging system. RESULTS:The advanced tumors corresponded to 80.70% and the early ones to 19.30%. In 43.90% there were positive nodes at N1 and N2 levels. The mean number of dissected lymph nodes was 28.63 in each patient. In IA, IB and II tumors, there were no changes in the stage after simulation of D1 lymphadenectomy. In ten IIIA tumors, three migrated to stage II and IB; in 21 tumors staged as IIIB, a migration was observed in 18; all stage IV tumors migrated to IIIB after the D1 simulation. CONCLUSION:a) D2 lymphadenectomy is important for the correct staging of gastric cancer; b) simulation of D1 lymphadenectomy changed the stage of advanced tumors, particularly in stages IIIA, IIIB, and IV; c) D2 lymphadenectomy avoided residual lymph node disease in almost half of the patients operated.
Lymph node excision adenocarcinoma; Stomach neoplasms; Gastrectomy
