Daniel Pinďák, Robert Duchoň, Robert Šucha, Michal Bernadič, Emil Duleba, Juraj Pechan
Surgical and endoscopic resections (in exactly defined cases) are the only curative methods in the treatment of gastric cancer. In the world there are two views on the status of surgery in the treatment. In Western countries prevalent opinion is that the prognosis of the disease is determined mainly by the biology of the tumor and the presence of metastases in lymph nodes is regarded as a sign of disease dissemination. In the Far East countries presence of lymph node metastases is considered to be a locoregional disease, treatable and can be cured by their surgical removing. Therefore, there are various staging systems and different indications for the administration of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy, before and after resection for gastric cancer.