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World J Gastrointest Oncol. Mar 15, 2016; 8(3): 289-296
Published online Mar 15, 2016. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i3.289
Role of genetic detection in peritoneal washes with gastric carcinoma: The past, present and future
Hyun-Dong Chae
Hyun-Dong Chae, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Catholic University of Daegu, Daegu 705-718, South Korea
Author contributions: The author solely contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: I have no conflict of interest to disclose and received no funding from the manufacturer of any drug, treatment, or appliance in the performance of this study and I have no other potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hyun-Dong Chae, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Catholic University of Daegu, 3056-6, Daemyung-4-Dong, Namgu, Daegu 705-718, South Korea. hdchae@cu.ac.kr
Telephone: +82-53-6504429 Fax: +82-53-6247185
Received: June 26, 2015
Peer-review started: June 27, 2015
First decision: July 28, 2015
Revised: October 25, 2015
Accepted: December 17, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: March 15, 2016
Processing time: 254 Days and 23.2 Hours
Abstract

The most frequent cause of treatment failure following surgery for gastric cancer is peritoneal dissemination, mainly caused by the seeding of free cancer cells from the primary gastric cancer, which is the most common type of spread. Unfortunately, there is no standard modality of intraperitoneal free cancer cells detection to predict peritoneal metastasis until now. We reviewed English literature in PubMed was done using the MeSH terms for gastric cancer, peritoneal wash, and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. All the articles were reviewed and core information was tabulated for reference. After a comprehensive review of all articles, the data was evaluated by clinical implication and predictive value of each marker for peritoneal recurrence. There are still many limitations to overcome before the genetic diagnosis for free cancer cells detection can be considered as routine assay. To make it a reliable diagnostic tool for detecting free cancer cells, the process and method of genetic detection with peritoneal washes should be standardized, and the development of simple diagnostic devices and easily available kits are necessary. Herein, we reviewed the past, present and future perspectives of the peritoneal lavage for the detection of intraperitoneal free cancer cells in patients with gastric cancer.

Keywords: Gastric cancer; Peritoneal metastasis; Free cancer cells; Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; Genetic detection

Core tip: The most common cause of treatment failure after gastric cancer surgery is peritoneal metastasis, mainly caused by free cancer cells from primary cancer. Genetic detection using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis has been used for the detection of free cancer cells. The process and method of genetic detection with peritoneal washes should be standardized, and the development of simple diagnostic devices and easily available kits are necessary in the future. In this article, we summarize the current evidence of genetic detection in peritoneal washes from gastric cancer patient.