[Significance of extended radical surgery for stage IV gastric cancer]

Forty percent of patients with gastric cancer with direct infiltration to adjacent organs survived for more than 5 years after curative resection. Favorable results were obtained in cases in which combined resection of the body of the pancreas or the liver was performed due to cancer infiltration. However, patients who had undergone gastrectomy with combined colectomy or pancreatoduodenectomy showed a poor survival rate. The postoperative 5-year survival rate was 29% for patients who had presented with group 3 lymph node metastasis and undergone potentially curative surgery. Particularly, favorable results were obtained in cases with metastases confined to lymph nodes in the hepatoduodenal ligament. In dissection of the deepest nodes, lymph nodes in the hepatoduodenal ligament is the most important to remove in surgery for stage IV gastric cancer. We have performed gastrectomy combined with dissection of group 1 and 2 lymph nodes in the treatment of patients with gastric cancer with peritoneal metastasis. Results obtained so far revealed that only patients with a lesser extent of serosal invasion survived longer after operation. We are presently conducting a trial of hyperthermia combined with anticancer chemotherapy as a possible method for prolongation of survival of patients with peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer.