- BACKGROUND: Even in clinical stage IV gastric cancer (GC), surgical procedures may be required to palliate symptoms or in an attempt to improve survival. However, the limited survival of these patients raises doubts about who really had benefits from it. AIM: This study aimed to analyze the surgical outcomes in stage IV GC treated with surgical procedures without curative intent. METHODS: Retrospective analyses of patients with stage IV GC submitted to surgical procedures including tumor resection, bypass, jejunostomy, and diagnostic laparoscopy were performed. Patients with GC undergoing curative gastrectomy served as the comparison group. RESULTS: Surgical procedures in clinical stage IV were performed in 363 patients. Compared to curative surgery (680 patients), stage IV patients had a higher rate of comorbidities and ASA III/IV classification. The surgical procedures that were performed included 107 (29.4%) bypass procedures (partitioning/gastrojejunal anastomosis), 85 (23.4%) jejunostomies, 76 (20.9%) resections, and 76 (20.9%) diagnostic laparoscopies. Regarding patients’ characteristics, resected patients had more distant metastasis (p=0.011), bypass patients were associated with disease in more than one site (p<0.001), and laparoscopy patients had more peritoneal metastasis (p<0.001). According to the type of surgery, the median overall survival was as follows: resection (13.6 months), bypass (7.8 months), jejunostomy (2.7 months), and diagnostic (7.8 months, p<0.001). On multivariate analysis, low albumin levels, in case of more than one site of disease, jejunostomy, and laparoscopy, were associated with worse survival. CONCLUSION: Stage IV resected cases have better survival, while patients submitted to jejunostomy and diagnostic laparoscopy had the worst results. The proper identification of patients who would benefit from surgical resection may improve survival and avoid futile procedures.

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BACKGROUND: Complete surgical resection is the main determining factor in the survival of advanced gastric cancer patients, but is not indicated in metastatic disease. The peritoneum is a common site of metastasis and preoperative imaging techniques still fail to detect it. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of staging laparoscopy in the staging of advanced gastric cancer patients in a Western tertiary cancer center. METHODS: A total of 130 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent staging laparoscopy from 2009 to 2020 were evaluated from a prospective database. Clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed to identify factors associated with the presence of peritoneal metastasis and were also evaluated the accuracy and strength of agreement between computed tomography and staging laparoscopy in detecting peritoneal metastasis and the change in treatment strategy after the procedure. RESULTS: The peritoneal metastasis was identified in 66 (50.76%) patients. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of computed tomography in detecting peritoneal metastasis were 51.5, 87.5, and 69.2%, respectively. According to the Kappa coefficient, the concordance between staging laparoscopy and computed tomography was 38.8%. In multivariate analysis, ascites (p=0.001) and suspected peritoneal metastasis on computed tomography (p=0.007) were statistically correlated with peritoneal metastasis. In 40 (30.8%) patients, staging and treatment plans changed after staging laparoscopy (32 patients avoided unnecessary laparotomy, and 8 patients, who were previously considered stage IVb by computed tomography, were referred to surgical treatment). CONCLUSION: The staging laparoscopy demonstrated an important role in the diagnosis of peritoneal metastasis, even with current advances in imaging techniques.

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most lethal malignancies and Gastrectomy with D2 lymphadenectomy is considered the standard surgical treatment. Adequate lymph node dissection is necessary for patients' prognosis, but D2 lymphadenectomy is technically demanding due to the complexity of anatomy, even more so if performed laparoscopically. The learning curve requires a high degree of training with a considerable number of cases and standardization of the technique. Recently, Indocyanine Green (ICG) and Near-Infrared (NIR) Fluorescence Imaging have been presented as promising image-guided surgery techniques, providing real-time anatomy assessment and intra-operative visualization of blood flow, lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels. ICG fluorescence imaging has been studied in GC surgery, especially for real-time lymphatic mapping. At present, we are conducting a prospective, open-label, single-arm clinical trial (Clinical trial - NCT03021200) to evaluate the feasibility and outcomes of ICG and NIR Fluorescence Imaging in GC surgery. In this technical note, we present one approach to the use of this technique to guide lymphadenectomy in laparoscopic distal gastrectomy.

BACKGROUND Clinical stage IV gastric cancer (GC) may need palliative procedures in the presence of symptoms such as obstruction. When palliative resection is not possible, jejunostomy is one of the options. However, the limited survival of these patients raises doubts about who benefits from this procedure. AIM To create a prognostic score based on clinical variables for 90-d mortality for GC patients after palliative jejunostomy. METHODS We performed a retrospective analysis of Stage IV GC who underwent jejunostomy. Eleven preoperative clinical variables were selected to define the score categories, with 90-d mortality as the main outcome. After randomization, patients were divided equally into two groups: Development (J1) and validation (J2). The following variables were used: Age, sex, body mass index (BMI), American Society of Anesthesiologists classification (ASA), Charlson Comorbidity index (CCI), hemoglobin levels, albumin levels, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), tumor size, presence of ascites by computed tomography (CT), and the number of disease sites. The score performance metric was determined by the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) to define low and high-risk groups. RESULTS Of the 363 patients with clinical stage IVCG, 80 (22%) patients underwent jejunostomy. Patients were predominantly male (62.5%) with a mean age of 62.4 years old. After randomization, the binary logistic regression analysis was performed and points were assigned to the clinical variables to build the score. The high NLR had the highest value. The ROC curve derived from these pooled parameters had an AUC of 0.712 (95%CI: 0.537–0.887, P = 0.022) to define risk groups. In the validation cohort, the diagnostic accuracy for 90-d mortality based on the score had an AUC of 0.756, (95%CI: 0.598–0.915, P = 0.006). According to the cutoff, in the validation cohort BMI less than 18.5 kg/m 2 ( P < 0.001), CCI ≥ 1 ( P = 0.001), ASA III/IV ( P = 0.002), high NLR ( P = 0.012), and the presence of ascites on CT exam ( P = 0.004) were significantly associated with the high-risk group. The risk groups showed a significant association with first-line ( P = 0.012), second-line chemotherapy ( P = 0.009), 30-d ( P = 0.013), and 90-d mortality ( P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The scoring system developed with 11 variables related to patient’s performance status and medical condition was able to distinguish patients undergoing jejunostomy with high risk of 90 d mortality.

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Purpose: Complete surgical resection is the main determining factor in the survival of advanced gastric cancer (AGC) patients, but resection should be avoided in metastatic disease. Peritoneum is a common site of metastasis and preoperative imaging techniques still fail to detect peritoneal metastasis (PM). Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the role of Staging Laparoscopy (SL) in the staging of AGC patients in a Western tertiary cancer center. Methods: We reviewed 130 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma submitted to SL from 2009 to 2020 from a prospective database. Clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed to identify factors associated with the presence of PM. We also evaluated the accuracy and strength of agreement between computed tomography (CT) and SL in detecting PM, and the change in treatment strategy after SL. Results: Among the 130 patients, PM was identified in 66 patients (50.76%) - P1 group. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of CT in detecting PM were 51,5%, 87,5% and 69.2%, respectively. According to the Kappa coefficient, concordance between SL and CT was 38.8%. In multivariate analysis, ascites (p=0.001) and suspected PM on CT scan (p=0.007) were statistically correlated with the P1 group. In 40 patients (30.8%), staging and treatment plans changed after SL (32 patients avoided unnecessary laparotomy and 8 patients who were previously considered stage IVb by CT scan were referred for surgical treatment). Conclusions: Even with current advances in imaging techniques, SL demonstrated an important role in the diagnosis of PM and remains valuable for determining the correct therapeutic strategy.