Impact of laparoscopic staging on therapy in gastric cancer

Surgical staging is the gold standard in assessing the extent of disease in gastric cancer. The introduction of video-assisted laparoscopy has allowed the surgeon the opportunity to maintain high quality with low morbidity and reduced length of stay for the patient. The body of evidence supporting its use in routine staging of gastric cancer is significant and now the potential to expand the role of laparoscopy into the area of new therapeutic procedures can be explored.