Introduction of CINTAGAS

The Gastric Cancer Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University was established in March 2024, with its predecessor being the Division of Gastric Surgery, Department of General Surgery and Department of Oncology. Currently, the center has 26 doctors, 33 nurses, 1 database administrator, and 1 laboratory staff, among which there are 11 senior titles, 10 intermediate titles, and 7 junior titles. There are a total of 110 wards, including 80 for surgery and 30 for comprehensive therapy. The center performs over 1,000 gastric cancer surgeries annually, making it the unit with the largest number of such cases in Jiangsu Province. Last year, the center completed over 1,800 gastric cancer surgeries, including 1,578 laparoscopic gastric cancer surgeries, ranking it as one of the units with the highest number of laparoscopic gastric cancer surgeries globally. Currently, the Gastric Cancer Center has obtained numerous authoritative international and domestic certifications, including the Chinese Medical Doctor Association's Laparoscopic Surgeon Training Base (2006), the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh's Resident Training Base (2011), and the Royal College of Surgeons, Resident Training Base (2014).

The center keeps up with international advancements in the standardized and minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer. Our center performed many first case in China, including the first 3D laparoscopic radical gastrectomy (2013), the first totally laparoscopic distal gastrectomy with uncut Roux-en-Y anastomosis (2014), the first totally laparoscopic proximal gastrectomy with double tract reconstruction (2015), the first totally laparoscopic proximal gastrectomy with Kamikawa esophagogastric anastomosis (2017), and the first totally laparoscopic proximal gastrectomy with side overlap esophagogastric anastomosis (2018). It also performed the first total laparoscopic total gastrectomy with pre-cut mesenteric π anastomosis globally. The laparoscopic surgery rate of our center was 86% last year, which was also one of the highest in the world.

So far, the center has conducted over 50 domestic and international laparoscopic gastric cancer training sessions, demonstrating live surgeries more than 60 times across China and twice internationally. It has also organized over 40 patient education events. Since 2014, the gastric cancer MDT (Multidisciplinary Team) outpatient clinic has been established, serving nearly 3,000 gastric cancer patients.

Since its establishment in 2014, the team has undertaken 34 research projects, including 14 Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), 1 international cooperation NSFC project, 1 major subproject of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and 18 provincial-level projects. It has won 5 awards above the provincial and ministerial levels. A total of 143 SCI papers have been published, including high-level international journals such as Gastroenterology, Oncogene, Molecular Cancer, Redox Biology and so on.

Professor Xu Zekuan, the academic leader of the center, is a Class A Distinguished Professor of Nanjing Medical University, Chief Surgeon, and Doctoral Supervisor. He currently serves as the Director of the Department of General Surgery and the Director of the Gastric Cancer Center at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. He also holds over 20 academic positions, including as a council member of the International Gastric Cancer Association, a member of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), a member of the Surgical Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, a standing committee member of the Surgeons’ Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the chairman of the Surgeons’ Branch of the Jiangsu Medical Doctor Association, and others. He is the director of the Gastric Cancer Research Institute of Nanjing Medical University and the leader of the Jiangsu Gastric Cancer Union. In recent years, he has led and participated in more than ten domestic and international multicenter clinical studies, including the large-scale multicenter clinical study CLASS-08. He has presided over the formulation of the Chinese expert consensus on digestive tract reconstruction after proximal gastrectomy and has authored or participated in 18 clinical guidelines or consensus documents. He has also edited one monograph and participated in writing three others.