Objective: To discuss the present status and progress of clinical research on recurrence of gastric cancer after surgery, including patterns, clinicopathologic factors, prognosis, detection, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment strategies.
Data sources: The data used in this review were mainly from PubMed articles published in English from 2000 to August 2011. The search terms were "gastric cancer" and "recurrence".
Study selection: Articles were selected if they involved clinicopathologic factors, detection methods, and treatment strategies of recurrence of gastric cancer.
Results: Peritoneal recurrence is the most common pattern in recurrence of gastric cancer. The main risk factors for recurrence of gastric cancer are tumor stage, including depth of tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis, and Borrmann classification. The prognosis of patients with recurrence is very poor, especially patients with peritoneal recurrence. Systemic chemotherapy is still the main treatment method for patients with recurrent cancer. If complete resection can be accomplished, some benefits may be obtained from surgery for recurrence. However, standard treatment for patients with recurrence has not yet been established.
Conclusions: Early detection and diagnosis of recurrence is quite crucial for treatment and prognosis. The optimal therapeutic strategy for recurrence should be based on a multidisciplinary assessment and the patient's individual state and should involve combined therapy.