Lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy during laparoscopic gastrectomy for early cancer

Intraoperative lymphatic mapping and sentinel node (SN) biopsy can potentially be combined with minimally invasive surgery, but there are few reports of laparoscopic lymphatic mapping for gastrointestinal cancer. We examined the feasibility and accuracy of laparoscopic lymphatic mapping in predicting lymph node status in patients with gastric cancer.

Seventeen patients with gastric cancer invading the mucosal or submucosal layers (T1) underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy with lymphatic mapping between March 2001 and May 2002. The day before surgery, a technetium-99m-labelled tin colloid solution was injected endoscopically around the tumor. Immediately after the pneumoperitoneum, patent blue was injected. Gastrectomy was performed in all patients, and blue-stained or radioactive nodes were defined as SNs. Fresh SNs were immediately processed for frozen-section examination by hematoxylin-eosin (H and E) and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. All non-SNs harvested from resected specimens were subjected to histological examination with H and E.

SNs were detected in all patients by combination of the two kinds of tracers. Three patients had lymph node metastases in their final examination, and SNs in these 3 were operatively diagnosed as positive by H and E or IHC staining. Lymphatic mapping and SN biopsy under laparoscopic surgery were performed with 100% accuracy.

Our preliminary study shows the feasibility of intraoperative lymphatic mapping in laparoscopic gastrectomy for T1 gastric cancer.