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Objective: Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer still remains controversial. The aim of this study is to compare oncologic feasibility and technical safety of laparoscopic versus open gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer with D2 lymphadenectomy by comparing patients' short-term postoperative outcomes. Methods: One hundred and one patients with laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy and 101 patients with open gastrectomy were one-to-one matched and then compared in terms of operative outcomes and hospital courses. Results: The laparoscopic group showed significantly longer operating time (297.4 vs. 198.1 min, P < 0.001), earlier first flatus time (2.8 vs. 3.6 days, P < 0.001), earlier diet start time (3.8 vs. 4.6 days, P < 0.001), shorter hospital stay (10.5 vs. 11.9 days, P < 0.001) and less morbidity (21.8 vs. 37.6%, P = 0.019). However, retrieval lymph nodes, intraoperative blood loss, transfused patients, postoperative fever and mortality were similar in the two groups. As for complications, incision infection (1.0 vs. 8.9%, P = 0.021) was significantly more common in the open group than in the laparoscopic group. In the subgroup comparisons of outcomes of laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy, the tumor, node, metastasis III group showed significantly increased retrieval lymph nodes (37.2 vs. 31.0, P < 0.001), increased intraoperative blood loss (147.2 vs. 120.5 ml, P = 0.010), increased length of hospital stay (11.1 vs. 9.9 days, P < 0.001) and increased morbidity (32.6 vs. 13.8%, P = 0.024) when compared with the tumor, node, metastasis II group. Conclusions: Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy is feasible and safe for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer with D2 lymphadenectomy compared with open gastrectomy. Higher-level tumor stage (tumor, node, metastasis III) may increase the operative risk and should be performed with caution by surgeons with considerable experience of laparoscopic gastrectomy.

The lateral-flow immunoassay (LFA) is a well-established point-of-care detection assay that is rapid, inexpensive, easy to use, and portable. However, its sensitivity is lower than that of traditional lab-based assays. Previously, we improved the sensitivity of LFA by concentrating the target biomolecules using aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) prior to their detection. In this study, we report the first-ever utilization of dextran-coated gold nanoprobes (DGNPs) as the colorimetric indicator for LFA. In addition, the DGNPs are the key component in our pre-concentration process, where they remain stable and functional in the high salt environment of our ATPS solution, capture the target protein with conjugated antibodies, and allow the rapid concentration of the target protein in our ATPS for use in the subsequent LFA detection step. By combining this pre-concentration step with LFA, the detection limit of LFA for a model protein was improved by 10-fold. We further improved our ATPS from previous studies by enabling phase separation at room temperature in 30 min. By using DGNPs for the concentration and detection of protein biomarkers in the sequential combination of the ATPS and LFA steps, we move closer to developing an effective protein detection assay which uses no power or lab-based equipment.

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