Ulcer Size and Gastric Cancer

mor size was clinically a predictor of survival of patients with gastric cancer in case of univariate analysis. However, Yokota et al. [3] further found in multivariate analysis that it was not an independent factor, and the presence of lymph node metastasis, depth of invasion and tumor location were more important than tumor size. In the study of Xu et al. [1] , further work using multivariate analysis might give more useful information. Dear Sir, It was with great interest that I read the recent publication by Xu et al. [1] , who concluded that ‘Ulcer size might be a potential indicator for advanced disease and the use of minimal local treatments must be considered carefully in larger ulcer size patients’. Indeed, the question whether tumor size is a prognostic factor for gastric carcinoma has been raised for years. Some reports showed discordant findings [2] . Recently, Yokota et al. [3] reported that tuPublished online: June 22, 2010