Staging laparoscopy in gastric cancer – 8 years of experience

Abstract

Background: The preoperative work-up has limitations on finding peritoneal dissemination in gastric cancer patients. Pretreatmente staging laparoscopy (SL) is recommended for all ≥T2N0 gastric tumors that are considered potentially resectable, to exclude occult metastatic disease. Laparoscopy has the advantage of directly visualizing the liver surface and the peritoneum and can be used to examine local lymph nodes. Between 20 and 30 percent of patients will be found to have peritoneal metastases despite having a negative CT scan.