Actual 3-year survival after laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy for gastric cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze 3-year actual disease-free survival after laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy for gastric cancer on the assumption that 3-year disease-free survival may represent 5-year overall survival.


METHODS
Retrospective analysis.


METHODS
Department of surgery of a university hospital.


METHODS
A total of 197 patients who underwent laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy for gastric cancer from May 1998 to September 2007 and who were followed up for more than 3 years.


METHODS
Feasibility and long-term survival rate with survival analysis by the Kaplan-Meier method.


RESULTS
Subtotal and total gastrectomies were performed in 178 and 19 patients, respectively. The scope of the lymph node dissections were D1 + beta (n = 152) and D2 (n = 45). There were 153, 28, 8, 6, 1, and 1 patients in stages Ia, Ib, II, IIIa, IIIb, and IV, respectively. The median follow-up was 45 months (range, 1-113 months), and there were 7 recurrences. Multivariate analysis of disease-specific survival showed that depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis influenced the prognosis independently. The actual 3-year disease-free survival rate for all patients was 96.9%. The 173 patients with early gastric cancer and 24 with advanced gastric cancer showed 98.8% and 79.1% actual 3-year disease-free survival rates, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy is acceptable oncologically in early gastric cancer if 3-year disease-free survival represents 5-year overall survival. Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy may also play an important role in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer.
Hwang
Sun-Hwi
SH
Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, 300 Gumi-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi, Korea.
Park
Do Joong
DJ
Jee
Ye Seob
YS
Kim
Min-Chan
MC
Kim
Hyung-Ho
HH
Lee
Hyuk-Joon
HJ
Yang
Han-Kwang
HK
Lee
Kuhn Uk
KU
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000601:surgery*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy / Q000379:methods / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D055815:Young Adult