Principles of surgical radicality in the treatment of gastric cancer.

The aim of curative surgery is to perform an RO resection, that is, the volume of resection should encompass the tumor volume in toto and fall in healthy margins. This means maintaining a transection margin 6 cm from the tumor and removing neighboring organs altogether if involved by the tumor. With regard to lymphadenectomy, the adequate number to be retrieved which allows a proper staging, and probably the optimal results, is about 25 lymph nodes.