Para-aortic lymphadenectomy in surgery for gastric cancer: current indications and future perspectives

Involvement of para-aortic nodes (PAN) has been detected at pathological examination in 10–25% of locally advanced gastric cancer. Based on these data of nodal diffusion, the lymphadenectomy of para-aortic stations would be desirable in locally advanced gastric cancer. However, the debate on the oncological benefit of para-aortic nodes dissection is still not solved. A review of the literature was performed and papers reporting either the rate of para-aortic nodal metastases or the long-term survival outcomes after D2+ para-aortic nodes dissection (PAND) or D3 lymphadenectomy were descriptively reported. The literature survey yielded 14 studies. Most of the papers show the outcome of series of advanced gastric cancer treated with surgery alone, while starting from 2012, 3 articles report the outcomes of D2 + PAND or D3 lymphadenectomy after preoperative chemotherapy. The rate of PAN metastases ranges between 8.5 and 28% in surgical series. Survival outcomes largely improved in series of patients treated with multimodal approach compared to those of surgery alone. In patients with clinically detected para-aortic nodal metastases, preoperative chemotherapy followed by PAND is indicated. More data are needed to clarify the indication to prophylactic PAND in the era of multimodal treatment, anyway super-extended lymphadenectomies have to be performed by experienced surgeons in dedicated centres.