“…In Japan, surgeons themselves separate lymph nodes from the excised specimen, map them according to each lymph node station and then submit it for pathological examination. Ambrosio et al ( 10 ) compared the Japanese method (surgeons and pathologists working together to identify lymph nodes at each station) with the conventional method (the resected specimen is fixed in formalin and the pathologist identifies the lymph nodes) for resected gastric cancer specimens. The results showed that the Japanese method retrieved significantly more lymph nodes than the conventional method (79 vs. 29, P=0.001).…”