Predictive Factors of Lymph Node Metastasis in Early Mucinous Adenocarcinoma

OBJECTIVE To identify clinicopathologic factors which predictlymph node metastases (LNM) in early mucinous adenocarcinomapatients, and to further explore the possibility of using minimallyinvasive treatment for patients with the disease.METHODS Data was collected from 38 patients with earlymucinous adenocarcinoma who were surgically treated, and theassociation between clinicopathologic factors and the presenceof LNM was retrospectively analyzed using univariate andmultivariate logistic regression analysis.RESULTS Tumor size greater than 2.0 cm, the developmentof submucosal invasion, and the presence of lymphatic vesselinvolvement (LVI) were confirmed through univariate analysis ashaving a significant association with LNM and were consideredto be significant and independent risk factors for LNM throughmultivariate analysis.CONCLUSION Tumor size > 2.0 cm, the development ofsubmucosal invasion, and the presence of LVI are independentpredictive factors for LNM in early mucinous adenocarcinoma.Minimally invasive treatment may be an effective treatment forintramucosal early mucinous adenocarcinoma when the tumorsize is 2.0 cm or less, and if LVI has not occurred, as confirmed bypostoperative histologic examination.