ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the predicators of survival and recurrence after curative resection for gastric cancer patients with serosal invasion.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Clinical and follow-up data of 280 patients with T4a gastric cancer(according to the 7th UICC TNM Classification for gastric cancer) who underwent curative resection for gastric cancer between January 1997 and December 2003 were analyzed retrospectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Five-year survival rate of these 280 patients was 50.0% and 158 patients (56.4%) presented with recurrence after surgery. The 3-year disease-free survival rate was 57.5%. The number of lymph node metastasis and metastatic lymph node ratio(MLR) were identified as the independent predicators for overall survival(P<0.05). The extent of lymph node metastasis was identified as the independent predicators for disease free survival (P<0.05). The extent of lymph node metastasis, the number of lymph node metastasis, and MLR were identified as the independent predicators for recurrence after surgery(P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The number of lymph node metastases, extent of lymph node metastasis and MLR are independent predictors of overall survival and recurrence in T4a gastric cancer patients after curative resection.</p>