Evaluating quality and completeness of gastrectomy for gastric cancer: review of surgical videos from the public domain

Worldwide, gastric cancer is a leading cause of mortality (1), with surgery representing the only potentially curative treatment. Despite 5-year survival rates of 40–60% in series from Asia and Europe (2,3). Five-year survival in North America is much worse, approximately 31% (4). Reasons for these survival differences are unclear, but may be related to low-volume surgeons performing resections, less aggressive surgery, poor staging, and differences in biology (5). In addition to resection of the tumor, extent of lymphadenectomy may affect survival. Non-randomized series from Asia and Europe have reported improved survival associated with the more extensive D2 lymphadenectomy (6-10) compared to the more limited D1 lymphadenectomy, Original Article