Comparison of long-term quality of life between Billroth-I and Roux-en-Y anastomosis after distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer: a randomized controlled trial / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

BACKGROUND@#The results of studies comparing Billroth-I (B-I) with Roux-en-Y (R-Y) reconstruction on the quality of life (QoL) are still inconsistent. The aim of this trial was to compare the long-term QoL of B-I with R-Y anastomosis after curative distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer.@*METHODS@#A total of 140 patients undergoing curative distal gastrectomy with D2 lymphadenectomy in West China Hospital, Sichuan University from May 2011 to May 2014 were randomly assigned to the B-I group ( N  = 70) and R-Y group ( N  = 70). The follow-up time points were 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months after the operation. The final follow-up time was May 2019. The clinicopathological features, operative safety, postoperative recovery, long-term survival as well as QoL were compared, among which QoL score was the primary outcome. An intention-to-treat analysis was applied.@*RESULTS@#The baseline characteristics were comparable between the two groups. There were no statistically significant differences in terms of postoperative morbidity and mortality rates, and postoperative recovery between the two groups. Less estimated blood loss and shorter surgical duration were found in the B-I group. There were no statistically significant differences in 5-year overall survival (79% [55/70] of the B-I group vs. 80% [56/70] of the R-Y group, P  = 0.966) and recurrence-free survival rates (79% [55/70] of the B-I group vs. 78% [55/70] of the R-Y group, P  = 0.979) between the two groups. The scores of the global health status of the R-Y group were higher than those of the B-I group with statistically significant differences (postoperative 1 year: 85.4 ± 13.1 vs . 88.8 ± 16.1, P  = 0.033; postoperative 3 year: 87.3 ± 15.2 vs . 92.8 ± 11.3, P  = 0.028; postoperative 5 year: 90.9 ± 13.7 vs . 96.4 ± 5.6, P  = 0.010), and the reflux (postoperative 3 year: 8.8 ± 12.9 vs . 2.8 ± 5.3, P  = 0.001; postoperative 5 year: 5.1 ± 9.8 vs . 1.8 ± 4.7, P  = 0.033) and epigastric pain (postoperative 1 year: 11.8 ± 12.7 vs. 6.1 ± 8.8, P  = 0.008; postoperative 3 year: 9.4 ± 10.6 vs. 4.6 ± 7.9, P  = 0.006; postoperative 5 year: 6.0 ± 8.9 vs . 2.7 ± 4.6, P  = 0.022) were milder in the R-Y group than those of the B-I group at the postoperative 1, 3, and 5-year time points.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Compared with B-I group, R-Y reconstruction was associated with better long-term QoL by reducing reflux and epigastric pain, without changing survival outcomes.@*TRIAL REGISTRATION@#ChiCTR.org.cn, ChiCTR-TRC-10001434.

Current status and challenges of neoadjuvant therapy in gastric cancer / 中华消化外科杂志

In recent years, neoadjuvant therapy, which can reduce the tumor stage, increase the surgical resection rate and the proportion of radical resection, reduce the risk of tumor recurrence and metastasis thus bringing survival benefit for local advanced gastric cancer patients, plays increasingly important roles in the comprehensive treatment of gastric cancer. In China, the early diagnosis rate of gastric cancer is particularly low and most patients with gastric cancer are diagnosed as locally advanced. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to discuss the current status and challenges of neoadjuvant therapy in gastric cancer. Combined with the existing clinical research results and guidelines and consensus, the authors analyze the application of neoadjuvant therapy in the comprehensive treatment of gastric cancer. Currently, more high-quality clinical trials are still needed to answer the questions related to neoadjuvant therapy of gastric cancer, such as the indication and regimen, and the optimal cycles and doses of agents, combination of targeted therapy or immunotherapy. Furthermore, how to tailor the individualized treatment strategies according to the pathological stages, molecular characteristics and gene polymophism of patients are still the problems unsolved nowadays. The authors comprehensively analyze the literature at home and abroad to deeply explore the current status and challenges of neoadjuvant therapy in gastric cancer.

Establishment and preliminary application of tissue response grading system following neoadjuvant chemotherapy / 中华胃肠外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish the tissue response grading (TRG) system following neoadjuvant chemotherapy and to investigate its application in the gastric cancer patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Data of 30 cT3-4N0-3M0 gastric cancer cases who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and operation from May 2017 to February 2018 at Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, West China Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. The edema degree of gastrointestinal tract and perigastric tissues, intraoperative effusion, and fibrosis of tumor and lymph nodes bearing tissues which could be divided into 4 categories constituted the core parameters of the TRG system following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Four categories of edema: grade 0, no obvious tissue edema; grade 1, slight tissue edema and swelling, no obvious effusion when dissecting the capsule of connective tissues; grade 2, moderate tissue edema and swelling, a few effusion when dissecting the capsule of connective tissues; grade 3, severe tissue edema and swelling with high tension on the capsule of connective tissues, tension blister could be observed in some patients, continuous effusion when dissecting the capsule of connective tissues. Four categories of intraoperative effusion: grade 0, no obvious effusion; grade 1, slight effusion and a few intraperitoneal exudation; grade 2, moderate effusion and continuous intraperitoneal exudation necessitating interrupted suction; grade 3, severe effusion and continuous intraperitoneal exudation necessitating constant suction. Four categories of fibrosis: grade 0, no fibrosis; grade 1, slight fibrosis with threadiness fibrous bands, clear dissecting space could be found between the fibrous tissues and adventitia/normal tissues; grade 2, moderate fibrosis with flaky fibrous tissues, the difficulty of tissue and lymph nodes dissection increased although dissecting space could be found between the fibrous tissues and adventitia/normal tissues; grade 3, severe fibrosis with hard and flaky fibrous membrane, the difficulty of tissue and lymph nodes dissection increased extremely and the fibrous tissues merges with adventitia/normal tissues without dissecting space. The relationships of TRG system with tumor response evaluation by computed tomography (CT), tumor regression score, surgical duration, number of retrieved lymph nodes, number of metastatic lymph nodes, number of enlarged lymph nodes seen in the preoperative CT scans as well as postoperative complications were analyzed using t test, χ² test and logistic regression model.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Nineteen male and 11 female patients with a mean age of(59.1±9.4) years were enrolled. There were 17 cases of grade 1, 12 cases of grade 2 and 1 case of grade 3 for tissue edema, while the corresponding number was 14, 15 and 1 for intraoperative effusion and 15, 14 and 1 for fibrosis respectively. There were no significant differences among the different degrees of tissue edema, intraoperative effusion and fibrosis in terms of the tumor response evaluation by CT and tumor regression score (all P>0.05). The results of logistics regression showed that tumor response evaluation by CT was related with the degree of tissue edema (P=0.012) and intraoperative effusion (P=0.007), rather than the degree of fibrosis (P=0.527). However, tumor regression score was not related with the degree of tissue edema(P=0.345), intraoperative effusion (P=0.159) and fibrosis (P=0.207). Surgical duration of one case with all grade 3 in tissue edema, intraoperative effusion and fibrosis was 408 minutes, which was longer than those with grade 1 and grade 2 patients [(295.9±40.1) minutes and (293.1±34.3) minutes, respectively]; the number of retrieved lymph nodes, metastatic lymph nodes, and enlarged lymph nodes seen in the preoperative CT scans of this case with all grade 3 were 25, 4 and 1, which were all less than those with grade 1 and grade 2 (42.3±11.9 and 38.5±18.2, 7.3±9.1 and 8.1±9.7, 1.8±1.6 and 2.3±1.3, respectively). There were no significant differences between grade 1 and grade 2 of tissue edema, intraoperative effusion and fibrosis in terms of surgical duration, retrieved lymph nodes, metastatic lymph nodes and enlarged lymph nodes seen in the preoperative CT scans(all P>0.05). Four patients suffered from pulmonary complications and 2 patients experienced slight lymphatic, and all leakage were cured by conservative therapies. There were no significant differences among the different grades of tissue edema, intraoperative effusion and fibrosis in terms of the operation-associated complications (all P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The tissue response grading system can assist the judgment of operation difficulty and reflect the effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy to some extent, which has the possibility of applications.</p>

Application of clockwise modularized lymphadenectomy in laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer / 中华胃肠外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the feasibility and efficacy of clockwise modularized lymphadenectomy in laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Clinical data of 19 cases who underwent the laparoscopic clockwise modularized lymphadenectomy for gastric cancer (clockwise group) from July 2016 to September 2016 were analyzed retrospectively. The clockwise modularized lymphadenectomy included the fixed operative order, detailed procedure and requirement of lymphadenectomy, which mainly reflected in assisting the exposure of operative field and dissection of lymph nodes through suspending the liver and banding the greater omentum, as well as proposing the requirements and attentions for the dissections of each station of lymph nodes to facilitate the quality control of lymphadenectomy. The operative time, intraoperative complications, intraoperative estimate blood loss, number of total harvested lymph nodes, morbidity and postoperative recovery, were compared with the data of another 19 cases who received traditional lymphadenectomy from January 2016 to June 2016 (control group).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The baseline data were comparable between two groups. All the patients were performed successfully by laparoscopy without conversion and intraoperative complications. The operative time, intraoperative estimated blood loss and number of total harvested lymph node were (278.4±29.9) min, (91.1±41.6) ml and 38.2±15.1 in clockwise group, and were (296.7±30.3) min, (102.2±32.2) ml and 37.0±12.3 in control group without significant differences (all P>0.05). However, the mean number of retrieved No.11p lymph nodes was 2.2±1.8 in clockwise group, which was significantly higher than that in control group (0.8±1.0) (P=0.013). Four patients in each group suffered from pulmonary infections, who were cured by conservative therapies. There was no anastomotic leakage, intraperitoneal hemorrhage, intraperitoneal infection or intestinal obstruction in each group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The clockwise modularized lymphadenectomy can contribute to the facilitation of the retraction and exposure, decrease of the surgical duration and intraoperative blood loss, and radicalization of lymph node dissection, especially for the lymph nodes dissection around the celiac trunk.</p>