简介：AbstractBackground:Previous studies have revealed that diabetes mellitus (DM) promotes disease progress of gastric cancer (GC). This study aimed to further investigating whether DM advanced lymph nodes (LNs) metastasis in GC.Methods:The clinicopathologic data of GC patients with >15 examined LN (ELN) between October 2004 and December 2019 from a prospectively maintained database were included. The observational outcomes included the number (N3b status) and anatomical distribution (N3 stations) of metastatic LN (MLN).Results:A total of 2142 eligible patients were included in the study between October 2004 and December 2019. N3 stations metastasis (26.8% in DM vs. 19.3% in non-DM, P = 0.026) and N3b status (18.8% in DM vs. 12.8% in non-DM, P = 0.039) were more advanced in the DM group, and multivariate logistic regression analyses confirmed that DM was an independent factor of developing N3 stations metastasis (odds ratio [OR] = 1.771, P= 0.011) and N3b status (OR= 1.752, P= 0.028). Also, multivariate analyses determined DM was independently associated with more MLN (β = 1.424, P = 0.047). The preponderance of N3 stations metastasis (DM vs. non-DM, T1-2: 2.2% vs. 4.9%, T3: 29.0% vs. 20.3%, T4a: 38.9% vs. 25.8%, T4b: 50.0% vs. 36.6%; ELN16-29: 8.6% vs. 10.4%, ELN30-44: 27.9% vs. 20.5%, ELN ≥ 45: 37.7% vs. 25.3%), N3b status (DM vs. non-DM, T1-2: 0% vs. 1.7%, T3: 16.1% vs. 5.1%, T4a: 27.8% vs. 19.1%, T4b: 44.0% vs. 28.0%; ELN16-29: 8.6% vs. 7.9%, ELN30-44: 18.0% vs. 11.8%, ELN ≥ 45: 26.4% vs. 17.3%), and the number of MLN (DM vs. non-DM, T1-2: 0.4 vs. 1.1, T3: 8.6 vs. 5.2, T4a: 9.7 vs. 8.6, T4b: 17.0 vs. 12.8; ELN16-29: 3.6 vs. 4.6, ELN30-44: 5.8 vs. 5.5, ELN ≥ 45: 12.0 vs. 7.7) of DM group increased with the advancement of primary tumor depth stage and raising of ELN.Conclusions:DM was an independent risk factor for promoting LN metastasis. The preponderance of LN involvement in the DM group was aggravated with the advancement of tumor depth.