Laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy for locally advanced gastric cancer

At our institution, upon approval of the Institutional Ethical Review Board for Human Investigation, we performed 12 cases of laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy for gastric cancer, lower bile duct cancer, and Vater's papilla cancer, etc., from June, 2008 through December, 2009. Of these, 4 cases were of advanced gastric cancer, including this case, for which we performed laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy and obtained excellent results. Discharge was possible within 30 postoperative days, except for 1 case of postoperative enterocolitis. At the time of discharge, their overall status was such that they could tolerate chemotherapy in all cases. We believe that laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy is also useful for patients with locally advanced gastric cancer requiring multimodality additional therapy.