ASO Author Reflections: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Gastric Cancer—Has the Future Arrived?

Excerpt

Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.1 Surgical resection currently is the dominant treatment option for GC patients. Since the introduction of laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) for GC in 1994, LG has been widely applied clinically worldwide for more than 2 decades. Until recently, most clinical trials focused on minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for stage 1 GC.2‐4 The oncologic effectiveness of LG in terms of 5-year overall survival also has been demonstrated in Asian patients with stage 1 GC.4,5 In fact, LG is considered a stipulated option for stage 1 distal GC according to the latest Japanese guideline published in 2014.6 The more rapid adoption of MIS for GC in the countries of Japan and Korea is largely due to the high incidence of GC overall and to early-stage GC in particular. In contrast, Western countries have been slower than Eastern countries to adopt a minimally invasive approach. …