In patients with gastric cancer, laparoscopic gastrectomy that includes removal of regional lymph nodes outside the immediate area around the stomach — D2 nodes — offered “excellent” margin status and node retrieval, researchers reported here.
In a single-arm, retrospective study, D2 laparoscopic dissection improved lymph node harvest from the historical average of 11 nodes to 32 nodes, reported Danielle Bischof, MD, from the University of Toronto, and colleagues at the Multidisciplinary Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.
Bischof told MedPage Today that the increase was accomplished without significant change in morbidity — 24 percent with a D2 dissection compared with 30.4 percent with the less extended lymph node surgery.
In addition, mortality was statistically unchanged, she said. About 10 percent of patients undergoing the D2 dissection died compared with 8.8 percent of those who had received the less extensive dissection.
