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Background Robot-assisted gastrectomy ( RAG) has been developed in the hope of improving surgical quality and overcoming the limitations of conventional laparoscopically assisted gastrectomy ( LAG) and open gastrectomy ( OG) for gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of evidence in support of these ideals. Methods A systematic review of the three operation types ( RAG, LAG and OG) was carried out to evaluate short-term outcomes including duration of operation, retrieved lymph nodes, estimated blood loss, resection margin status, technical postoperative complications and hospital stay. Results Nine non-randomized observational clinical studies involving 7200 patients satisfied the eligibility criteria. RAG was associated with longer operating times than LAG and OG (weighted mean difference 61·99 and 65·73 min respectively; P ≤ 0·001). The number of retrieved lymph nodes and the resection margin length in RAG were comparable with those of LAG and OG. Estimated blood loss was significantly less in RAG than in OG ( P = 0·002), but not LAG. Mean hospital stay for RAG was similar to that for LAG ( P = 0·14). In contrast, hospital stay was significantly shorter, by a mean of 2·18 days, for RAG compared with OG ( P < 0·001). Postoperative complications were similar for all three operative approaches. Conclusion Short-term oncological outcomes of RAG were comparable with those of the other approaches. LAG was a shorter procedure and less expensive than RAG. Future studies involving RAG should focus on minimizing duration of operation and reducing cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capecitabine, a prodrug of 5-FU, has been reported to generate maximal tumour activity at tumour sites and/or to improve drug tolerability as compared with 5-FU infusion, and it has also been demonstrated to act synergistically with irinotecan against some solid cancers. A previous study concluded that dose-intensified biweekly capecitabine seems to be more effective at increasing both response rate and progression-free survival time than conventional dose and schedule of capecitabine in colon cancer. We conducted this study to ascertain the efficacy and toxicity of dose-intensified biweekly capecitabine and irinotecan combination chemotherapy in chemotherapy-naïve advanced or metastatic gastric cancer patients. Patients were treated with irinotecan 130 mg m−2 intravenously for 90 min on days 1 and 15. Capecitabine at 3500 mg m−2 day−1, divided into two sessions per day, was administered for seven consecutive days from days 1 and 15, and followed by a 7-day drug-free period, respectively. Fifty-five eligible patients were enrolled in this study from November 2003 to April 2006. There were 22 women and 33 men: median patient age was 54 years (range: 27–81). A total of 200 treatment cycles were administered at a median number of four per patient (range: 1–9). Intent-to-treatment analysis showed that one patient achieved complete response (1.8%), 23 partial response (41.8%), 15 stable disease (27.3%), 10 progressive disease (18.2%) and 6 were non-evaluable (10.9%). The overall response rate was 43.6% (95% confidence interval: 30.2–56.9). The common grade 3–4 toxicities were neutropenia in 12 (21.8%), nausea/vomiting in 3 (5.4%) and diarrhea in 4 (7.2%) patients. Median time to progression was 5 months (range: 0.5–11 months), median survival duration was 11 months (range: 0.5–45 months) and median response duration was 6 months (range: 0.5–9 months). Biweekly dose-intensified capecitabine and irinotecan combination chemotherapy was active for the treatment of advanced or metastatic gastric cancers with a tolerable safety profile.British Journal of Cancer (2007) 96, 1514–1519. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6603752 www.bjcancer.com Published online 1 May 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]