Long-term results of laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer: a large-scale case-control and case-matched Korean multicenter study.

Abstract

PURPOSE: The oncologic outcomes of laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy for the

treatment of gastric cancer have not been evaluated. The aim of this study is to

validate the efficacy and safety of laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer

in terms of long-term survival, morbidity, and mortality retrospectively.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study group comprised 2,976 patients who were treated

with curative intent either by laparoscopic gastrectomy (1,477 patients) or open

gastrectomy (1,499 patients) between April 1998 and December 2005. The long-term

5-year actual survival analysis in case-control and case-matched population was

conducted using the Kaplan-Meier method. The morbidity and mortality and learning

curves were evaluated. RESULTS: In the case-control study, the overall survival,

disease-specific survival, and recurrence-free survival (median follow-up period,

70.8 months) were not statistically different at each cancer stage with the

exception of an increased overall survival rate for patients with stage IA cancer

treated via laparoscopy (laparoscopic group; 95.3%, open group: 90.3%; P < .001).

After matching using a propensity scoring system, the overall survival,

disease-specific survival, and recurrence-free survival rates were not

statistically different at each stage. The morbidity of the case-matched group

was 15.1% in the open group and 12.5% in the laparoscopic group, which also had

no statistical significance (P = .184). The mortality rate was also not

statistically significant (0.3% in the open group and 0.5% in the laparoscopic

group; P = 1.000). The mean learning curve was 42. CONCLUSION: The long-term

oncologic outcomes of laparoscopic gastrectomy for patients with gastric cancer

were comparable to those of open gastrectomy in a large-scale, multicenter,

retrospective clinical study.