The role of laparoscopic staging in the management of gastric cancer

Aim: Staging laparoscopy enables us to carry out palliative treatment, neo-adjuvant therapy for curative resection or direct curative resection and to make a decision on appropriate strategy leading to minimal morbidity by avoiding unnecessary laparotomies. In the present study, the importance of staging laparoscopy was retrospectively investigated by studying clinical and pathological data. Material and methods: Data of 70 out of 350 patients who underwent diagnostic laparoscopy due to gastric cancer at Surgical Oncology Department between August 2013 and January 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Peritoneal biopsy was positive for malignancy in 41 (58.5%) and negative in 29 (41.5%) of the patients who underwent SL. Peritoneal cytology (PC) results were negative in 32 (45.7%) patients and positive in 38 (54.3%) patients. Peritoneal biopsy and cytology results were concurrently positive in 35 patients and concurrently negative in 26 patients. Conclusions: In conclusion, even the most developed imaging methods cannot provide for 100% correct staging, therefore SL plays an important role in the treatment of gastric cancer and laparoscopic staging is considered a simple, inexpensive, safe and well tolerated method in patients suspected of peritoneal disease who cannot be adequately evaluated with pre-operative methods.