Comparable rates of lymph node metastasis and survival between diffuse type and intestinal type early gastric cancer patients: a large population-based study

Limited evidence and contradictory results exist regarding the impact of Lauren type, namely diffuse and intestinal types, of lymph node metastasis (LNM) and prognosis for early gastric cancer (EGC). We aimed to compare LNM and prognosis between diffuse and intestinal type EGCs using comprehensive statistical analysis.The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was used to identify all patients with surgically resected, histologically diagnosed, intestinal or diffuse type EGC. Multivariate logistic regression, multivariate Cox regression, multivariate competing risk model, and propensity score matching were used to analyze association the Lauren type and LNM or prognosis.We identified 5593 EGCs from the SEER database, including 4376 intestinal types and 1217 diffuse types. No positive association was found between LNM and Lauren type (odds ratio, .93; 95% confidence interval [CI], .70-1.24; P = .62) after adjustment for other risk factors. Moreover, diffuse-type EGCs showed a similar prognosis to intestinal type EGCs in both multivariate Cox regression (HR [hazard ratio], .95; 95% CI, .77-1.18; P = .66) and the multivariate competing risk model (subdistribution HR [SHR], .99; 95% CI, .80-1.22; P = .926). Propensity score matching was used, and 733 diffuse types were matched with 733 intestinal types. We did not find any association between the Lauren type and LNM (odds ratio, .98; 95% CI, .71-1.37; P = .934) or prognosis in the univariate Cox regression (HR, .98; 95% CI, .76-1.26; P = .893) and univariate competing risk model (SHR, .98; 95% CI, .76-1.26; P = .893).Diffuse-type EGC may have a comparable risk of LNM and prognosis to intestinal-type EGC. Nevertheless, these results should be carefully interpreted with caution when choosing endoscopic resection instead of surgery, because the treatment choice for EGC depends on the risk of lymphovascular invasion rather than LNM rate or prognosis.