Background: The use of laparoscopic surgery in the management of advanced gastric cancer (AGC) has not yet met with widespread acceptance and remains limited to only a few centers.~Intervention: According to tumor pathological stage (JGCA, 2nd English ed), location of tumor, and patient clinical condition, a laparoscopy-assisted radical gastrectomy and open gastrectomy were performed. Laparoscopy-assisted radical gastrectomy consisted of the following procedures: 1) laparoscopic dissection of the lesser and greater omentum, ligation and division of the main vessels to mobilize the stomach under pneumoperitoneum, 2) laparoscopic D2 lymph node dissection, based on the Guidelines of the Japan Gastric Cancer Association and 3) resection of the distal two thirds (LADG), proximal third (LAPG), or total stomach (LATG), depending on the location of the tumor, followed by reconstruction by the Billroth I, Billroth Ⅱ, esophagogastrostomy, or Roux-en-Y method through a 3 to 5-cm-long minilaparotomy incision.~Follow-up schedule: All patients were monitored postoperatively by physical examination, and blood tests including a test for serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) at least every three months for the ﬁrst year, every six months for the next two years, and every year for the fourth and fifth year, and thereafter by abdominal ultrasonography, CT, chest radiography, and gastroscopy at least once each year.
The purpose of this study is to compare the short- and long-term results between the laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy and the open gastrectomy.