title: [Assessment of lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer: status quo, recent advances and new perspectives].
abstract: The precondition of accurate gastric cancer surgery is precise assessment of lymph node metastasis. To date, no imaging modality achieves both high sensitivity and high specificity in detecting lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer. Intraoperative sentinel node tracing and biopsy are the most popular method to identify the localization of tumor cell, but is limited to early gastric cancer. Nano-composite materials, designed for tumor imaging and tracing, show us a newly emerging domain for tumor detection in gastric cancer. The function of these nano-composite materials to detect lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer relies on the effective backflow of lymph system. However, the lymph vessels can be obstructed by tumor cells in advanced gastric cancer, which may restrain the application of these nanoparticles. Therefore, more methods to detect lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer should be explored. This review summarizes the characteristic of the targeted nanosphere. Based on the reported studies, a novel idea is conceived that targeted multifunctional nanosphere may be a potential method to achieve precise assessment of lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Medical College of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: Zhen-shu
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Lin-sen
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Xi-qun
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wen-xian
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Guan
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*