Calculation of a clinical predictive factors identifying peritoneal disease on a staging laparoscopy in gastric cancers

INTRODUCTION: Staging laparoscopy (SL) is the current standard staging workup for loco-advanced gastric cancers (GCs). Materials and Methods: We analyzed the data of all patients with loco-regionally advanced, nonmetastatic GCs, who underwent SL for the evaluation of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the data of all patients with loco-regionally advanced, nonmetastatic GCs, who underwent SL for the evaluation of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC). RESULTS: Between December 2013 and October 2016, 363 patients underwent SL, of which 75 (20.7%) were found to have PC on SL. Age ≤40 years, CA 19-9 > upper limit of normal, and low serum albumin levels (≤3.5 g/dl) correlated significantly with the presence of PC on SL. There was a statistically significant difference in the median overall survival between patients with radiologically detected PC and SL detected PC (8.67 months vs. 15.3 months;P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: SL upstaged disease status in 20.7% of patients. Clinical factors, identified in this study, need further validation in larger prospective cohorts before being used in clinical practice. Patients with radiologically detected PC have lower survival as compared to those with PC on SL.