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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 14, 2016; 22(10): 2894-2899
Published online Mar 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i10.2894
Sentinel lymph node navigation surgery for gastric cancer: Does it really benefit the patient?
Tohru Tani, Hiromichi Sonoda, Masaji Tani
Tohru Tani, Hiromichi Sonoda, Masaji Tani, Department of Surgery, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan
Author contributions: Tani T and Sonoda H were equally contributed to this work; Tani T, Sonoda H and Tani M wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hiromichi Sonoda, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, Shiga University of Medical Science, Seta Tsukinowa-cho, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan. hirosono@belle.shiga-med.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-77-5482238 Fax: +81-77-5482240
Received: April 24, 2015
Peer-review started: April 24, 2015
First decision: October 14, 2015
Revised: December 16, 2015
Accepted: January 17, 2016
Article in press: January 18, 2016
Published online: March 14, 2016
Abstract

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) navigation surgery is accepted as a standard treatment procedure for malignant melanoma and breast cancer. However, the benefit of reduced lymphadenectomy based on SLN examination remains unclear in cases of gastric cancer. Here, we review previous studies to determine whether SLN navigation surgery is beneficial for gastric cancer patients. Recently, a large-scale prospective study from the Japanese Society of Sentinel Node Navigation Surgery reported that the endoscopic dual tracer method, using a dye and radioisotope for SLN biopsy, was safe and effective when applied to cases of superficial and relatively small gastric cancers. SLN mapping with SLN basin dissection was preferred for early gastric cancer since it is minimally invasive. However, previous studies reported that limited gastrectomy and lymphadenectomy may not improve the patient’s postoperative quality of life (QOL). As a result, the benefit of SLN navigation surgery for gastric cancer patients, in terms of their QOL, is limited. Thus, endoscopic and laparoscopic limited gastrectomy combined with SLN navigation surgery has the potential to become the standard minimally invasive surgery in early gastric cancer.

Keywords: Sentinel lymph node navigation surgery, Gastric cancer, Quality of life, Sentinel lymph node basin, Endoscopic and laparoscopic treatment

Core tip: Recently, a large-scale prospective study reported that the endoscopic dual tracer method, using a dye and radioisotope for sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, was safe and effective when applied to cases of superficial and relatively small gastric cancers. However, previous studies reported that limited gastrectomy and lymphadenectomy may not improve the patient’s postoperative quality of life (QOL). As a result, the benefit of SLN navigation surgery for gastric cancer patients, in terms of their QOL, is limited. Thus, endoscopic and laparoscopic limited gastrectomy combined with SLN navigation surgery has the potential to become the standard minimally invasive surgery for early gastric cancer.