J Gastrointest Surg DOI 10.1007/s11605-014-2682-2

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Inverse Association Between Visceral Obesity and Lymph Node Metastasis in Gastric Cancer Se Woo Park & Hang Lak Lee & Yong Won Ju & Dae Won Jun & Oh Young Lee & Dong Soo Han & Byung Chul Yoon & Ho Soon Choi & Joon Soo Hahm

Received: 8 July 2014 / Accepted: 10 October 2014 # 2014 The Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract

Abstract Background The relationship between fat distribution and lymph node metastasis has not been well studied. The goal of this study was to determine the impact of visceral obesity on lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer. Materials and Methods Metastatic lymph node ratio (MLR) was defined as the number of involved nodes by tumor divided by the total number of resected lymph nodes. Visceral (VFA) and subcutaneous fat areas (SFA) were determined by measuring abdominal fat volume distribution via CT scan, and visceral obesity was defined as a VFA to total fat area ratio (V/T) >0.29. Results With lymph node metastasis as a dependent variable, the following factors were significant in multivariate analysis among 495 patients: pathologic T stage (P