Clinical comparison of laparoscopic vs open distal gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer: Perioperative safety, recovery, and survival

Table 3 Postoperative oncological pathology results, n (%)/mean ± SD

Parameters	Laparoscopy (n = 213)	Open surgery (n = 207)	t/χ2/Fisher	P value
Mean tumor size (cm)	4.64 ± 0.95	4.63 ± 0.89	0.062	0.951
Mean number of retrieved lymph nodes			None	0.493
≥ 16 nodes	213 (100.00)	206 (99.52)
< 16 nodes	0 (0.00)	1 (0.48)
Number of metastatic lymph nodes (number)	3.54 ± 0.61	3.48 ± 0.57	1.054	0.293
Histology			0.950	0.622
Differentiated	85 (39.91)	80 (38.65)
Undifferentiated	124 (58.22)	120 (57.97)
Other	4 (1.88)	7 (3.38)
Pathologic T stage			0.494	0.920
T1	59 (27.70)	54 (26.09)
T2	45 (21.13)	48 (23.19)
T3	57 (26.76)	58 (28.02)
T4	52 (24.41)	47 (22.71)
Pathologic N stage			0.005	0.944
N0	96 (45.07)	94 (45.41)
N+	117 (54.93)	113 (54.59)
Pathologic tumor-node-metastasis stage			1.099	0.577
I	77 (36.15)	71 (34.30)
II	64 (30.05)	72 (34.78)
III	72 (33.80)	64 (30.92)

Pathologic T stage: T1: Tumor invasion of mucosal layer or submucosal layer; T2: Tumor invades the intrinsic muscle layer; T3: Tumor penetrates the subserosal layer; T4: Tumor invades deeper or adjacent organs/structures; Pathologic N stage: N0: No cancer cells were found to have spread to regional lymph nodes; N+: There is evidence to suggest that cancer cells have spread to one or more regional lymph nodes; Pathologic tumor-node-metastasis stage: I: Cancer is limited to the gastric wall or only slightly extends to adjacent structures, and no lymph node or distant metastasis has been found; II: Cancer may have spread to deeper layers of the gastric wall or adjacent structures, and may involve a small amount of lymph node metastasis, but no distant metastasis; III: Cancer significantly extends to the deep or adjacent structures of the gastric wall, accompanied by more lymph node metastasis, but there is still no distant metastasis.