Staging Laparoscopy and Peritoneal Cytology for Gastric and Gastro-oesophageal Junction Malignancy: an Audit from a Single Oesophagogastric Resection Centre

Abstract Aims AUGIS recommends staging laparoscopy in all gastric cancers and selected gastro-oesophageal junction (GOJ) cancers. We previously audited our practice of staging laparoscopy and peritoneal cytology and found that in a cohort of 158 consecutive patients, no tumours less than T3 with negative nodes had positive cytology, resulting in change in practice to selectively use peritoneal cytology in patients with a T-stage of 3 and above or N+ disease. Our aim was to assess the impact of this audit on current practice. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the notes of patients undergoing staging laparoscopy and oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD) identified by MDT from January 2019 to December 2019. Patients who underwent resection on the same day were excluded. Results 63 patients underwent staging laparoscopy and OGD, 54 for GOJ and 9 for gastric disease. The majority were staged as T3 or T4a (81%). As a result of staging laparoscopy and OGD, 4 (6%) patients were changed from curative to palliative pathway, 2 (3%) of whom had positive cytology. No patients had positive peritoneal cytology for a T stage of 2 and below with no positive nodes, further demonstrating the safety of the recommendation. Conclusions Peritoneal cytology has a low yield in changing the clinical course of patients but can upstage up to 6% of patients. The re-audit backs up the previous guidance in the safety of using our current threshold for recommending peritoneal cytology and potentially prevents delaying treatment while waiting for cytology results.