Background: This study evaluated the prognosis of patients with carcinoma in the gastric remnant stump after distal gastrectomy for benign disease (stump cancer).
Methods: Twenty patients with resected stump cancer were studied and compared with 266 patients with resected primary cancer in the upper third of the stomach (primary cancer).
Results: The percentages of lymph nodes with metastases located at the lesser curvature and the left gastric artery, respectively, were 50.0% and 25.2% in patients with primary cancer and 15.0% and 5.0% in patients with stump cancer. In patients with remnant gastric cancer, lymph node metastases at jejunal mesentery near anastomotic site were found in 2 of 20 (10.0%). The 5-year survival rates were 62.1% and 52.5% for patients with curatively resected primary cancer (n = 203) and stump cancer (n = 17), respectively, and there was no statistical difference between the two groups. There was a distinct difference in terms of patterns of recurrence between patients with curatively resected primary cancer and those with stump cancer. The percentages of peritoneal and hematogenic metastases, respectively, were 40.6% and 31.3% in primary cancer and 0% and 83.3% in stump cancers.
Conclusion: The lymph flow from the remnant stomach seems to be changed by the initial operation, and as a result, in stump cancer, metastatic lymph nodes are located at different places from those associated with primary cancer. Even when curative surgery is performed in patients with stump cancer, it is important to follow up patients and check for possible metastasis to the liver.