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BackgroundMini-invasive surgery (MIS), ERAS, and preoperative nutritional screening are currently used to reduce complications and the length of hospital stay (LOS); however, inter-variable correlations have seldom been explored. This research aimed to define inter-variable correlations in a large series of patients with gastrointestinal cancer and their impact on outcomes.MethodsPatients with consecutive cancer who underwent radical gastrointestinal surgery between 2019 and 2020 were analyzed. Age, BMI, comorbidities, ERAS, nutritional screening, and MIS were evaluated to determine their impact on 30-day complications and LOS. Inter-variable correlations were measured, and a latent variable was computed to define the patients' performance status using nutritional screening and comorbidity. Analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM).ResultsOf the 1,968 eligible patients, 1,648 were analyzed. Univariable analyses documented the benefit of nutritional screening for LOS and MIS and ERAS (≥7 items) for LOS and complications; conversely, being male and comorbidities correlated with complications, while increased age and BMI correlated with worse outcomes. SEM analysis revealed that (a) the latent variable is explained by the use of nutritional screening (p0·004); (b) the variables were correlated (age–comorbidity, ERAS–MIS, and ERAS–nutritional screening, p < 0·001); and (c) their impact on the outcomes was based on direct effects (complications: sex, p0·001), indirect effects (LOS: MIS-ERAS-nutritional screening, p < 0·001; complications: MIS-ERAS, p0·001), and regression-based effects (LOS: ERAS, MIS, p < 0·001, nutritional screening, p0·021; complications: ERAS, MIS, p < 0·001, sex, p0·001). Finally, LOS and complications were correlated (p < 0·001).ConclusionEnhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS), MIS, and nutritional screening are beneficial in surgical oncology; however, the inter-variable correlation is reliable, underlying the importance of the multidisciplinary approach.

Lymphadenectomy is crucial for an optimal oncologic resection of colon and rectal cancers. However, without a direct visualization, an aberrant route of lymph node (LN) diffusion might remain unresected. Indocyanine-green (ICG) lymphatic mapping permits a real-time LNs visualization. We designed the GREENLIGHT trial to explore in 100 patients undergoing robotic colorectal resection the clinical significance of a D3 ICG-guided lymphadenectomy. The primary endpoint was the number of patients in whom ICG changed the extent of lymphadenectomy. We report herein the interim analysis on the first 70 patients. After endoscopic ICG injection 24 h (n = 49) or 72 h (n = 21) ahead, 19, 20, and 31 patients underwent right colectomy, left colectomy, and anterior rectal resection. The extent of lymphadenectomy changed in 35 (50%) patients, mostly (29 (41.4%)) for the identification of LNs (median two) outside the standard draining basin. Identification of such LNs was less frequent in rectal tumors that had undergone chemoradiotherapy (26.3%) (p > 0.05). A non-significant correlation between time-to-ICG injection and identification of aberrant LNs was observed (48.9% at 24 h vs. 23.8% at 72 h). The presence of LN metastases did not affect a proper fluorescent mapping. These data indicate that ICG lymphatic mapping provides relevant information in 50% of patients, thus increasing the accuracy of potentially curative resections.

Ovarian cancer may be considered as an "intraperitoneal disease" by itself. When surgical removal associated with systemic chemotherapy fails, usually, the history of the patients is characterized by poor prognosis. Some encouraging results have been reported by the treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) from ovarian cancer by complete surgical cytoreduction, peritonectomy and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). The purpose of this article was to evaluate the survival benefit and the morbidity of patients with ovarian cancer treated at our institution by cytoreductive surgery associated with hyperthermic intraperitoneal perioperative chemotherapy (HIPEC).Between October 1995 and December 2012 more than 600 operations for PC were performed; in 308 cases surgical cytoreduction associated with HIPEC was carried out. Eighty-five patients treated by cytoreduction associated with HIPEC were affected by recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Statistical analysis was performed on 70 patients (last 15 patients were too recent for evaluation). Two trials were applied: 1) patients presenting first peritoneal relapse after surgery and systemic chemotherapy (CT), 6 months later from last CT administration; 2) multiple relapse patients.On 70 patients, morbidity and mortality rates were 35.7% and 7.1%, respectively. Overall median survival was 42.0 months, but in primary EOC was 48.0 months and in recurrent EOC was 28 months (P=0.12). Statistical analysis revealed that the completeness of cytoreduction was the most statistically significant factor related to survival: in completely citoreduced patients, overall survival was 48 months.Citoreductive surgery associated to platinum compounds HIPEC is feasible and relatively safe in recurrent and primary PC from ovarian cancer. Better selection of patients and second-look surgery in high risk-patients have to be investigated to improve those encouraging results.