Meta-analysis of the relationship between lymphovascular invasion and prognosis of patients with stage I gastric cancer

Lymphovascular invasion is considered to be a high-risk pathological feature after radical resection of gastric cancer, but the relationship between lymphovascular invasion and the prognosis of stage I gastric cancer is still controversial. Therefore, we used meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the relationship between lymphovascular invasion and the prognosis of stage I gastric cancer. Up to September 2, 2021, the databases of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, and Wanfang were searched. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 2 researchers independently completed the screening of literature, extraction of data, and quality evaluation. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software merged with HR and 95%CI. A total of 7508 patients with stage I gastric cancer were included in 9 studies, and the positive rate of lymphovascular invasion was 17%. Lymphovascular invasion was significantly associated with shorter overall survival (OS) (univariate: HR = 4.05, 95%CI: 1.91–8.58; multivariate: HR = 2.10, 95%CI: 1.37–3.22) and relapse-free survival (RFS) (univariate: HR = 4.79, 95%CI: 2.30–9.99; multiple: HR = 2.17, 95%CI: 1.56–3.00). This study indicates that lymphovascular invasion is an independent risk factor affecting the prognosis of patients with stage I gastric cancer, and can be used as a reference index for postoperative adjuvant therapy.