[Laparoscopic gastrectomy combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer patients: from the view of the CLASS-03a trial]

Abstract

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with radical gastrectomy is one of the most important parts of the multimodality therapy strategies for locally advanced gastric cancer. With the development of laparoscopic technique in recent decades, laparoscopic technique plays a more and more important role in the surgical treatment of gastric cancer. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, as a part of comprehensive treatment of gastric cancer, has gained more and more clinical supports and been recommended for guidelines. With the development of laparoscopic technique and clinical evidence, laparoscopic operation for advanced gastric cancer has been applied more and more widely. However, the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic resection following neoadjuvant chemotherapy, as a new treatment modality, still needs prospectively high-level researches to verify. Therefore, we will discuss some key points of laparoscopic gastrectomy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy based on the CLASS 03a trial, which is led by the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, and Chinese Laparoscopic Gastric Surgery Study Group. The CLASS 03a trial aims to confirm surgical and oncological safety of laparoscopy distal D2 radical gastrectomy for locally advanced stage gastric cancer patients (cT3~4a, N-/+, M0) who completed neoadjuvant chemotherapy. On the base of CLASS 03a trial, this article elucidates the choice of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer and proposes some associated problems about neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with laparoscopic gastric cancer operation.