Long-term outcomes of laparoscopic versus open total gastrectomy in patients with advanced gastric cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: This study was conducted to investigate the long-term outcomes of laparoscopic total gastrectomy (LTG) versus open total gastrectomy (OTG) in patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT).

Methods: Patients with AGC who received NACT before surgery were enrolled in either the LTG or OTG group. Propensity score matching (PSM) (1:2) was performed between the two groups based on the propensity score using a 0.15 calliper width. Three-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were compared between these two groups before and after PSM. OS and DFS rates were calculated by the Kaplan‒Meier method, and any differences in survival were evaluated with a log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses were used to estimate the simultaneous effects of prognostic factors on survival and the hazard ratio (HR) between LTG and OTG patients.

Results: A total of 144 patients completed the follow-up, with 24 patients in the LTG group and 120 patients in the OTG group. After a mean follow-up of 64.40 months, there were no significant differences in the 3-year OS or DFS rates between the two groups before (P = 0.453 and P = 0.362, respectively) or after PSM (P = 0.972 and P = 0.884, respectively). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis indicated that ypN stage was an independent risk factor for worse OS (P = 0.013).

Conclusions: This study showed that LTG with D2 lymphadenectomy performed by an experienced surgical team resulted in comparable 3-year OS and DFS compared with OTG in patients with AGC after NACT.

Trial Registration: This study is not registered.