Figure 4

Flowchart of study case selections.
Among 3176 surgical and/or endoscopic resections of gastric cancer, 491 were identified with pathological stage I diseases. After review of histology slides and reports, 53 were excluded for a variety of reasons, resulting in 438 cases that were further divided into proximal (PGC) and distal (DGC) gastric carcinoma groups. NDTH: Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital.