Short-term safety and Long-term efficacy of multivisceral resection in pT4b gastric cancer patients without distant metastasis: a 20-year experience in China National Cancer Center

Background: Multivisceral resection is occasionally necessary for pT4b gastric cancer patients to achieve negative margin. The purpose of this study is to assess the short-term safety and long-term efficacy of this approach. Methods: A single-center, retrospective analysis was conducted for pT4b gastric cancer patients after curative-intent multivisceral resection from the China National Cancer Center Gastric Cancer Database (NCCGCDB) from 1998 to 2018. The postoperative complications, recurrence patterns, long-term survival, and prognostic factors were analyzed. Results: A total of 210 patients were included in the study. The most common combined resection organs were multiple organs (30.5%), pancreas (20.5%), colon (16.7%), and liver (9.0%). Seventeen patients (8.1%) developed postoperative complications and hospital death was observed in one patient (0.5%). The most common postoperative complications were anastomotic leak (4.3%) and intra-abdominal infection (5.7%). The 3-year and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates for the patients investigated were 38.0% and 33.8%, respectively, and the 3-year and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 48.2% and 39.1%, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression analysis proved that negative nerve invasion was independent risk factors for DFS (HR: 2.202, 95%CI: 1.144-4.236, P=0.018) and OS (HR: 2.219, 95%CI: 1.164-4.231, P=0.015). Conclusions: Multivisceral resection in pT4b gastric cancer patients without distant metastasis was effective and had an acceptable safety profile.