Minimally Invasive Gastric Cancer Surgery

Minimally invasive surgical approaches to the treatment of gastric cancer have become increasingly common as more data have demonstrated the safety, feasibility, and oncologic equivalency of such approaches compared with conventional open gastrectomy. East Asia has produced the majority of these data, encouraging Western high-volume centers to expand their application of minimally invasive techniques to patients despite more advanced tumor stages at presentation and a lower volume of cases. More randomized, controlled trials and longer term outcome data are necessary to definitively establish the superiority of minimally invasive gastrectomy to open gastrectomy for the treatment of gastric cancer.