Gastric Cancer

Opinion statement  

–	The best treatment for gastric cancer remains early detection and prompt surgical removal. Currently, the majority of gastric carcinomas diagnosed in western centers are late-stage tumors with poor prognoses.
–	Endoscopic ultrasound and diagnostic laparoscopy aid our ability to accurately stage patients with gastric cancers, and may prevent unnecessary laparotomies in asymptomatic patients.
–	While extended lymphadenectomy is the standard approach in Japanese centers, the utility of this procedure in improving long-term survival has yet to be proved in prospective, randomized trials.
–	Accurate staging of patients preoperatively and selected multidisciplinary approaches to individual patients may eventually lead to improvements in survival for patients with gastric cancer.