Laparoscopic versus open gastrectomy for locally advanced gastric cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a comprehensive contrastive analysis with propensity score matching

Abstract Background Laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) is increasingly applied in locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC). However, there is no study to comprehensively evaluate the clinicopathological, prognostic, and laboratory data such as nutrition, immune, inflammation-associated indexes, and tumor markers between LG and open gastrectomy (OG) for LAGC following NC. Methods The clinicopathological, prognostic, and laboratory data of LAGC patients with clinical stage of cT2-4aN1-3M0 who underwent gastrectomy after NC were retrospectively collected. The effects of LG and OG were compared after propensity score matching (PSM). Results This study enrolled 148 cases, of which 110 cases were included after PSM. The LG group had a shorter length of incision (P