As less-invasive operations have been noted in recent years, laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer has become popular in Japan. We have performed laparoscopic gastrectomy with regional lymph node dissection on 750 cases of gastric malignancies between March 1998 and August 2007. Here we present the outcome of laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer..
Of all 750 cases, we evaluated the prognosis of 390 cases who had been followed up for over 3 years (average follow up period: 5.3 years). Distal gastrectomy was performed on 323 cases, proximal gastrectomy on 24 cases, and total gastrectomy on 43 cases, respectively. The indication of operation was established sT2N1 or less. D1 lymph node dissection for T1 cases (n=280) or D2 for T2 cases (n=110) was carried out according to the general rule of Japanese Gastric Cancer Association.
The final stages of the patients were as follows; stage 1A: 275, stage 1B: 51, stage2: 44, stage3A: 20. Recurrence occurred in 18 cases (T1: 4, T2: 14). The cumulative 5 year survival rate was 95.4%. The outcome in each stage was as follows; stage 1A: 100%, stage 1B: 92.2%, stage2: 86.4%, stage 3A: 60.0%. There was no significant difference between the prognosis of laparoscopic and open gastrectomy patients.
In conclusion, laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer is considered as curative as compared to the conventional open gastrectomy.
Session: Podium Presentation
Program Number: S005