Advantages and disadvantages of various treatment methods for gastric cancer

  Surgery is the only hope to obtain radical cure for gastric cancer. Anyone who has no obvious signs of metastasis in clinical examination, no serious organic lesions in all important organs, and whose general nutritional status and immune function status are estimated to be able to tolerate surgery should be given the opportunity of abdominal dissection. In addition, even for those with distant metastases, if there are serious life-threatening complications such as pyloric obstruction, perforation, bleeding, etc., but the general condition can still tolerate surgery, they should also be given the opportunity of palliative surgery in order to relieve symptoms, alleviate pain and improve the quality of survival.  The effect of surgical treatment of gastric cancer is greatly related to the stage of gastric cancer, pathological pattern and the choice of surgical plan. According to the study of biological behavior of gastric cancer, upper gastric cancer has a worse prognosis than middle and lower gastric cancer for surgery. This may be due to the fact that lower gastric cancer is more frequent in the restricted type, while upper gastric cancer is more frequent in the mesenchymal type. The size of the tumor has no significant relationship with the prognosis. The scope of surgical resection of infiltrating diffuse gastric cancer is not easy to determine because of its unclear margin, and there are many and extensive metastases in this type of gastric cancer, which cannot be removed completely by surgery.  Laparoscopic-assisted radical gastric cancer surgery is a recent emerging minimally invasive treatment modality. It is more suitable for patients with early stage of disease. Laparoscopic surgery can also meet the requirements of open surgery in terms of resection extent and lymph node removal with less trauma and faster patient recovery. Laparoscopy can also be used to explore the extent of the lesion and avoid unnecessary surgery in some patients with advanced disease. However, it is more expensive than normal surgery because of the special instruments required.  The key point of gastric cancer surgery is the standard radical surgery, which requires systematic and complete resection of the perigastric reflux lymph nodes, i.e. D2 contouring. Also the accuracy of the incision margin is an important factor in preventing local recurrence. The tumor-free operation during surgery can reduce or avoid the spread of tumor during surgery and the metastasis of medical implantation. Therefore, the level of surgery is of great significance to the prognosis of gastric cancer.  Second, chemotherapy Gastric cancer is moderately sensitive to chemotherapy, and there is no chemotherapy program that can cure gastric cancer, so chemotherapy is only used as an adjuvant treatment program for surgery, which is generally divided into preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative chemotherapy for surgery. If chemotherapy is sensitive, the following objectives can be achieved: 1. To confine and downgrade the lesion in order to improve the surgical resection rate.  2.To reduce the chance of tumor cell dissemination and implantation during surgery.  3.Adjuvant chemotherapy after radical surgery to eliminate the possible residual lesions and reduce the chance of metastasis and recurrence.  4.After palliative surgery to control the development of disease, alleviate the symptoms and prolong the survival period.  3.Radiation therapy Undifferentiated carcinoma, hypofractionated carcinoma, tubular carcinoma and papillary carcinoma have certain sensitivity to radiotherapy, and the best effect for those with small and shallow carcinoma foci and without ulcers, which is more respected in Europe and America, and also has certain adjuvant effect on the deficiency of surgical contouring. Mucinous adenocarcinoma and indolent cell carcinoma are not effective for radiotherapy, so they are contraindicated. Chemotherapy may cause serious problems of radioactive kidney damage and radiation enteritis, which need to be implemented by experienced medical units.  It is reported that preoperative radiotherapy for gastric cancer can make the primary tumor regress to varying degrees in more than 60% of cases, which can increase the resection rate and improve the 5-year survival rate. In addition, intraoperative radiotherapy can be administered. For those who cannot be resected radically during surgery and have residual tumor, silver clips can be used to mark the residual tumor, and postoperative supplemental radiotherapy is feasible after pathological confirmation of the histological type of non-mucinous carcinoma or indolent cell carcinoma.  Immunotherapy Tumor patients are mostly associated with immune system disorders. The indications of immunotherapy include: 1. systemic application of immunostimulant is suitable after radical surgery for early gastric cancer; 2. direct injection of immunostimulant into residual cancer for unresectable or palliative resection cases; 3. intraperitoneal injection of immunostimulant is suitable for advanced patients with ascites. In addition, if economic conditions allow, immunomodulatory agents can be considered after radical surgery.  V. Endoscopic treatment Early gastric cancer patients who meet the criteria of endoscopic resection can be treated by endoscopic mucosal resection and other methods to achieve the purpose of radical treatment. In addition, those with systemic diseases that are not suitable for surgical resection can be treated by endoscopic treatment, such as laser, microwave and anhydrous alcohol injection through endoscopy.  Sixth, Chinese medicine treatment Compared with other treatments, Chinese medicine treatment has many advantages such as less pain, no side effects, and does not affect normal physiological functions. Chinese medicine treatment mainly focuses on enhancing immunity and improving the patient’s own resistance, which can be used as an adjunctive treatment to surgery and chemotherapy. In addition, TCM treatment can be used in cases such as postoperative intestinal adhesions. TCM treatment is also unique in adjusting the function of the vegetative nervous system and other aspects.  Radiofrequency therapy for liver metastases, interventional therapy, local heat therapy and other methods have certain efficacy in patients with advanced disease and can be tried when physical conditions permit.