Peritoneal recurrence in gastric cancer after curative gastrectomy: risk factors and predictive score model

Peritoneal recurrence (PR) remains the most common pattern of relapse in gastric cancer (GC), even after curative resection. Given its dismal prognosis, the identification of risk factors for PR is essential for developing new treatment modalities and selecting a more appropriate subgroup of patients. This study aimed to evaluate the risk factors and survival outcomes of patients with GC who had PR and to develop a risk score to predict PR. All patients with GC who underwent curative gastrectomy were included. For analysis, patients were divided into no recurrence (NR), recurrence in other sites (ROS), and PR. Risk factors for PR were analyzed to build a risk score. Among 622 patients with GC, 460 (74.0%) had NR, 98 (15.7%) had ROS, and 64 (10.3%) had PR. Female patients, linitis on computed tomography, depth of tumor invasion, and diffuse/mixed type were associated with PR. Patients with PR had worse overall survival than those with ROS (22.0 vs 29.8 months, respectively; P = .008). The median survival estimates after recurrence were 5.0 months in the PR group and 9.9 months in the ROS group (P