Clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of Borrmann type IV gastric cancer: a meta-analysis

The clinicopathologic features and surgical treatment strategy of Borrmann type IV (B-4) gastric cancer remains controversial. This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the clinicopathologic features of patients with B-4 gastric cancer and to assess whether or not non-curative resection improved prognosis. PubMed and Embase were searched for relevant articles. Statistical analysis was performed using RevMan (version 5.2). The odds ratio (OR), risk ratio (RR), hazard ratio (HR) with 95 % confidence interval (CI), and weighted average of median survival times were calculated as effect values. Fifteen studies were included. Compared with Borrmann type “others” (B-O), B-4 had a higher incidence of poorly differentiated carcinoma (OR = 4.92; 95 % CI = 3.10–7.83; P < 0.01), lymph node metastases (OR = 2.13; 95 % CI = 1.88–2.41; P < 0.01), peritoneal metastases (OR = 3.91; 95 % CI = 3.37–4.54; P < 0.01), serosal invasion (OR = 3.66; 95 % CI = 2.91–4.60; P < 0.01), and lymphatic invasion (OR = 1.39; 95 % CI = 1.02–1.91; P = 0.04). B-4 patients with non-curative resection were associated with a worse survival rate (HR = 2.83; 95 % CI = 2.35–3.40; P < 0.01) than patients with curative resection; however, B-4 patients with non-curative resection had a better survival rate (1-year: RR = 0.70, 95 % CI = 0.63–0.77; P < 0.01; 2-year: RR = 0.90, 95 % CI = 0.85–0.94; P < 0.01) than patients with non-resection. Our meta-analysis indicated that B-4 patients were associated with poor tumor differentiation, lymph node metastases, peritoneal metastases, serosal invasion, lymphatic invasion, and prognosis. Curative resection may increase the survival rate for B-4 patients. If it is not possible to perform a curative resection, a non-curative resection may improve the prognosis.