Journal of Gastric Cancer  2012;12(1):13-17

doi:10.5230/jgc.2012.12.1.13

History of Minimally Invasive Surgery for Gastric Cancer in Korea.

Young Woo KIM 1 ; Hong Man YOON ; Bang Wool EOM ; Ji Yeon PARK

Affiliations

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Keywords

Stomach neoplasms; Laparoscopy; Gastrectomy; Robotics; History

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

Laparoscopic gastrectomy was begun in 1995 in Korea. But, there was 4 years gap to reactivate in 1999. High incidence of gastric cancer and increasing proportion of early cancer through national screening program along with huge effort and enthusiasm of laparoscopic gastric surgeon, and active academic exchange with Japanese doctors contributed development of laparoscopic gastrectomy in Korea. Study group activity of Korean Laparoscopic Gastrointestinal Surgery Study (KLASS) group and Collaborative Action for Gastric Cancer (COACT) group were paramount to evoke large scale multicenter clinical study and various well performed clinical studies. This review encompasses mainly international publications about this area so far in Korea.