After a patient with gastric cancer has undergone surgery, especially after radical resection, and in the absence of distant metastases, the physician will decide on follow-up treatment based primarily on the depth of gastric cancer infiltration (T stage) and regional lymph node metastasis (N stage), with reference to the patient’s physical condition and other factors. For different stages of gastric cancer, doctors usually recommend the following postoperative treatment options.
- For early gastric cancer without lymph node metastasis (T1N0), follow-up observation is usually recommended;
- For patients with a pathological diagnosis of T2 without lymph node metastasis (N0), if they have high-risk factors (e.g., poorly differentiated tumor, high grade, infiltration of the vasculature or nerves, less than 50 years of age, no D2 radical surgery), adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy is usually recommended; for T2N0 patients without these high-risk factors, regular follow-up is usually recommended;
- Patients with T3 to T4 gastric cancer, or patients with lymph node metastasis (N+) regardless of T stage, are generally recommended to undergo postoperative adjuvant therapy, including adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy. (Written by Dr. Pengliang Wang, The First Hospital of China Medical University)