Background: Staging laparoscopy may be usefull avoiding unnecessary laparotomy in patints with advanced cancer.
Methods: In the last 16 months diagnostic laparoscopy was performed in 8 patients. There were no major complications, no mortality and no trocar site metastasis were observed.
Discussion: Staging laparoscopy has a great role in case of advanced pancreatic cancer to reduce the diagnosis of unresectable disease made by unnecessary laparotomy. Laparoscopic exploration can be proposed for advanced gastric cancer that can be associated with an high incidence of peritoneal involvement. Laparoscopy is also usefull to evaluate candidates for cytoreduction of peritoneal carcinomatosis and hypertermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy or evaluating advanced stage of ovarian cancer.
