Gastrectomy: the expanding role of minimally invasive surgery in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer remains one of the most frequent cancers worldwide. Currently the only potentially curative treatment is surgery, often in combination with perioperative chemotherapy. Gastric cancer surgery is associated with significant morbidity. However, over the last few decades several potential advances have been introduced to improve the treatment for gastric cancer patients. Introduction of laparoscopic gastric cancer surgery has shown promising results and therefore gained popularity worldwide. This review describes an overview of laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer patients. In general, the introduction of laparoscopic surgery has shown improvement in the short-term outcomes of gastric cancer treatment. Laparoscopic approach for gastric cancer is feasible, safe and should be performed in experienced high volume centres. However, results from randomised trials in advanced gastric cancer are awaited to further determine the effect of a laparoscopic gastrectomy on oncological and long-term outcomes