Lymphadenectomy in elderly/high risk patients: should it be different?

The global aging of population will lead a greater number of elderly patients to undergo surgical procedure in a near future. Concerning gastric cancer, the impact of lymphadenectomy on survival has been demonstrated in RCTs, and extended lymphadenectomy is now considered as gold standard of treatment in non-early tumors. However, the role of age as a prognostic factor and the benefit of extended surgery in elderly/high-risk patients are not clearly defined yet. From our revision of literature, it seems that surgery for gastric cancer may have a further tailorization, considering not only the stage of disease, but also patients’ age and comorbidities.