Which gastric cancer patients could benefit from staging laparoscopy? A GIRCG multicenter cohort study

This study aimed to investigate which gastric cancer patients could benefit the most from staging laparoscopy.

A retrospective cohort study was carried out, including 316 (216 cM- and 100 cM+) gastric cancer patients who had undergone staging laparoscopy between 2010 and 2020 in seven GIRCG centers. A model including easily-accessible clinical, biochemical and pathological markers was constructed to predict the risk of carcinomatosis. ROC curve and decision curve analyses were used to verify its accuracy and net benefit.

In the cM-population staging laparoscopy could detect 67 cases who had peritoneal carcinomatosis or positive cytology, for a yield of 30.5%. In cM-patients, intestinal type tumors (0.25, 0.12-0.51; p = 0.002), cT4 tumors (2.18, 1.11-4.28; p = 0.023) and cancers of the lower third (0.31, 0.14-0.70; p = 0.004) were associated with the presence of peritoneal carcinomatosis and/or positive cytology. The ROC curve analysis of the model including the three variables showed an AUC of 0.75 (0.68-0.81, p < 0.001). The decision curve analyses showed that the model had a higher net benefit than the treating all strategy between threshold probabilities of 15 and 50%.

Staging laparoscopy is a useful tool to address the patient with gastric cancer to the most adequate treatment. In cM-patients the assessment of the location of the tumor, the Lauren's histotype and the cT status may help in providing additional elements in indicating or not the use of staging laparoscopy.