Surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment for gastric cancer. The extent of surgical resection includes total or subtotal gastrectomy, D2 lymphadenectomy, and prophylactic or therapeutic resection of the surrounding organs or tissues (e.g., omentum, peritoneum, etc). However, the oncologic importance of omentectomy during gastrectomy remains unclear. The European guidelines do not give any advice regarding omentectomy, whereas the most recent American guidelines advise to resect both the greater and lesser omentum. Alternatively, the Japanese gastric cancer treatment guidelines recommends preservation of the greater omentum at >3 cm from the gastroepiploic arcade for patients with T1-T2 tumors and total omentectomy for patients with T3-T4 tumors. In order to evaluate the impact of omentectomy for advanced gastric cancer on patient survival, we designed this trial. Patients who received curative gastrectomy were divided into two groups based on whether they underwent omentectomy. The primary endpoint is the 3-year relapse-free survival rate and the secondary endpoints are 5-year overall survival, and postoperative morbidity.
The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of omentectomy for advanced gastric cancer on patient survival.