Rationale of oncological follow-up after gastrectomy for cancer—the Consensus Conference

At present, there is no scientific evidence supporting any definite role for follow-up after gastrectomy for cancer and albeit many retrospective series have clearly demonstrated that early diagnosis of tumor recurrence in the asymptomatic phase has not resulted in a survival improvement, compared to late diagnosis (1-4), still the clinical practice in most high volume centers implies that after surgery patients are submitted to repeated clinical and instrumental checks.