Presence of cancer cells in gastric lavage of gastric cancer patients as an indicator of advanced disease, predictor of tumour aggressive phenotype and independent prognostic factor for poor survival: the endoluminal pathway of gastric cancer and GL0
OBJECTIVE:
As of 2017, the pathobiology of gastric cancer (GC) is far from fully understood; consequently, new methods of basic and advanced research have been proposed and tested. The presence (GL1) vs absence (GL0) of malignant cells exfoliated in gastric lavage (GL) of GC patients was formerly evaluated with diagnostic intent but not for staging or prognostic assessment. We investigated this hitherto unreported application of cytopathology.