Extended follow-up after extended lymphadenectomy for gastric cancer: was it worth the wait?

摘要

Studies show that D2 (extended) lymphadenectomy improves the accuracy of locoregional staging and might reduce disease recurrence in patients with advanced gastric adenocarcinoma.1-2 When expert surgeons perform D2 lymphadenectomy and avoid routine distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy, perioperative morbidity and mortality can be kept to a minimum.3 At present, surgical resection is seldom the only treatment forpatients with advanceddisease.Theuseofmultimodal therapies is supported by a series of trials substantiating their efficacy and positive effect on recurrence and survival.46 In this issue of The Lancet Oncology, Songun and colleagues7 report on 15-year follow-up data of the nationwide Dutch trial of Dl (limited) versus D2 lymphadenectomy for treatment of gastric cancer.