Influence of perioperative anesthesia methods or anesthetic agents preferred for gastric cancer surgery on the survival of patients: a narrative review

Background: Gastric cancer is a major global public health problem. It is the fourth most common cancer and the second cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Despite advances in the field of medical and radiation oncology, surgical resection is a crucial intervention and remains the mainstay of gold standard treatment. Recently, the effects of anesthesia method(s) and/or anesthetic agent(s) on survival for different types of cancers gained attention. So, we want to summarize the evidences of anesthesia methods and/or anesthetic agents preferred for gastric cancer surgery on the survival. Main body: The Web of Science software was used for the search and the analysis. To analyze scientific productivity of all scientific papers published about survival of patients due to the anesthesia methods or anesthetic agents on gastric cancer in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) from 1980 to December 5, 2020, the date of the search was searched by using the terms of "gastric cancer," "survival," and "anesthesia" in the topic search section of the software. As a result, overall, fifteen papers were related to our topic. Four of these studies compared total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) with general anesthesia, five of these compared general anesthesia with general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia/analgesia for gastric cancer, and three of these studies investigated effect of anesthetic agents for gastric cells in in vitro conditions. Other publications were review on this topic. Conclusions: The important role of anesthesia in treatment of gastric cancer patients is still controversial. Further prospective randomized studies are needed.