Any single application of these imaging tools cannot satisfactorily assess the gastric cancer lymph node status.
But several imaging techniques which are commonly used in stomach cannot satisfactorily assess the gastric cancer lymph node status.
The primary prognostic discriminant in patients presenting with breast cancer is lymph node status (Fisher et al, 1983).
Current prognostic markers for curatively resected pancreatic cancer include lymph node status, tumour type and histological grade [ 2, 4, 5].
Many clinicopathological factors have been reported to be potential prognostic markers for colorectal cancer, including lymph node status, presence of metastases and differentiation status [ 10].
Clinical information— including the cancer stage, axillary node status, estrogen/progesterone receptor status, HER-2, and specific course of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery was obtained from clinical records.
The classical prognostic markers for breast cancer, including lymph node status, tumour size and stage, have proven clinical value (Fitzgibbons et al, 2000).
When searching for features that are common to these rare fatal cancers, neither axillary node status nor histologic malignancy grade could reliably discriminate fatal cancers from those with excellent prognosis.
The second study of 122 patients (Turner et al, 2001) consisted predominantly of pre-menopausal patients (mean age, 54 years), only 41% of whom had ER+ cancers, and lymph node status was unknown in 48% of cases.
For the present purpose, we extended the breast cancer model with lymph node status: during tumour growth, breast cancer can change from node negative (N−) to node positive (N+).
