MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY FOR GASTRIC CANCER: TIME TO CHANGE THE PARADIGM

INTRODUCTION: Minimally invasive surgery widely used to treat benign disorders of the digestive system, has become the focus of intense study in recent years in the field of surgical oncology. Since then, the experience with this kind of approach has grown, aiming to provide the same oncological outcomes and survival to conventional surgery. Regarding gastric cancer, surgery is still considered the only curative treatment, considering the extent of resection and lymphadenectomy performed. Conventional surgery remains the main modality performed worldwide. Notwithstanding, the role of the minimally invasive access is yet to be clarified. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and summarize the current status of minimally invasive resection of gastric cancer. METHODS: A literature review was performed using Medline/PubMed, Cochrane Library and SciELO with the following headings: gastric cancer, minimally invasive surgery, robotic gastrectomy, laparoscopic gastrectomy, stomach cancer. The language used for the research was English. RESULTS: 28 articles were considered, including randomized controlled trials, meta-analyzes, prospective and retrospective cohort studies. CONCLUSION: Minimally invasive gastrectomy may be considered as a technical option in the treatment of early gastric cancer. As for advanced cancer, recent studies have demonstrated the safety and feasibility of the laparoscopic approach. Robotic gastrectomy will probably improve outcomes obtained with laparoscopy. However, high cost is still a barrier to its use on a large scale.