Chinese experts consensus on standardized surgical management of specimens from radical gastrectomy (2022 edition)

Abstract

In the standardized diagnosis and treatment process of advanced gastric cancer, there is a unappreciated key link between standard radical surgery and accurate pathological reports. That is, the process of dissection, fixation, sampling and recording of the specimen by the surgeons, starting from specimen isolation to the management of the pathologist. Standardizing this process can not only accurately reflect the detailed distribution and exact number of lymph nodes, but also clarify the pathological stage of gastric cancer, so as to make adjuvant treatment plans. Moreover, it can also reflect the scope of intraoperative lymph node dissection to ensure the standardized implementation of surgery, including the overall dissection principle (en bloc resection), and therefore can provide a solid foundation for later related researches. So far, there is still a lack of complete and unified standard for the surgical management of specimens after radical gastrectomy in China. On the basis of the relevant researches and clinical practice about specimen management at home and abroad, the Chinese Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, in the name of the Gastric Cancer Professional Committee, Chinese Anticancer Association, as well as the Oncogastroenterology Professional Committee, Chinese Anticancer Association, organized dozens of experts to formulate a consensus on the standardized surgical management of specimens after repeated discussions and revisions for two years. This consensus is aimed to standardize the preparations, basic requirements and sample processing procedures before the surgical treatment of postoperative specimens after a radical surgery for gastric cancer patients, including the processing time of specimens, the processing and data archiving of gastric specimens, and lymph node grouping, sorting and fine sorting records, etc and with the purpose of standardizing the surgical treatment of postoperative specimens on the basis of standardized diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer, in order to further promote the high-quality development of gastric cancer surgery in China.