The Department of General Surgery - Gastrointestinal Surgery of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University is the earliest center in China to promote standardized radical surgery for gastrointestinal tumors and to organize and implement multi-disciplinary team (MDT) collaboration for comprehensive treatment of gastrointestinal tumors. As early as in the early 1990s, Professor Gallen Wang, the famous surgeon and founder of the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery at Zhongshan Hospital, led his team members to routinely carry out standardized radical gastrectomy and radical total gastrectomy for gastric cancer, as well as selective extended radical gastric cancer surgery including para-abdominal lymph node dissection, and simultaneous resection of hepatic metastases for gastric cancer, which has accumulated rich surgical treatment experience. The center integrates general surgery, medical oncology, endoscopy center, diagnostic imaging, radiotherapy, interventional therapy, pathology and other multidisciplinary experts from Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, adhering to the "patient-centered", and is committed to providing high-quality, safe and convenient medical services. Through the efforts, dedication and inheritance of several generations, the center has created a national reputation for its fine tradition of "first-class technology, rigorous style and high medical ethics".

In 2003, Prof. Qin Xinyu, then Director of General Surgery Department of Sun Yat-sen Hospital, planned to set up a subspecialty of Gastrointestinal Surgery, focusing on the surgical treatment of gastric cancer. In 2005, when there was no uniform understanding on the diagnosis and treatment of adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction in the world and China, Professor Qin took the lead in proposing that "adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction of II and III should be treated according to the standard of diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer, and the first choice is to undergo transabdominal surgery" and carried out the Transabdominal Esophageal Slit Surgery for the treatment of adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction at the same time. With this technique, the perioperative mortality rate was reduced from 4.2% to 0.5%, and the 5-year overall survival rate was increased from 38.1% to 51.6%, which significantly improved the safety and efficacy of surgery for patients with adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric conjunction.

Since 2006, under the leadership of Prof. Yao Liqing, Director of Endoscopy Center of Sun Yat-sen Hospital, the treatment team mainly led by Prof. Zhou Pinghong has been the first to carry out ESD technology in China, and so far, it has completed more than 3,000 cases of ESD treatment for esophageal, gastric, colorectal and other early cancers of the digestive tract, and it is the medical unit that carries out the earliest time, treats the most cases, publishes the earliest paper on ESD in China, and performs the earliest on-site operation and demonstration in ESD congresses in China. It is the earliest medical unit to carry out ESD treatment in China, with the largest number of cases treated, the earliest ESD paper published, and the earliest ESD live operation demonstration. Prof. Yao Liqing and Prof. Zhou Pinghong also edited the first monograph on Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD) in China. Currently, Sun Yat-sen Hospital has become one of the largest centers for endoscopic treatment of early gastrointestinal cancer in the world.

Since 2007, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, as one of the main initiators, has been committed to the national promotion and training of standardized surgical treatment of gastric cancer. Professor Sun Yihong, the leader of the department, participated in the initiation of the national tour of radical gastric cancer surgery as the vice-chairman of the China Gastric Cancer Collaboration Group and practiced it as a core member of the tour expert group. It has lasted for 8 years, covering 33 provinces, cities and autonomous regions in China, with more than 2,000 trainees, making outstanding contributions to the promotion and popularization of the standardization of radical gastric cancer surgery in China.

In 2008, relying on the key disciplines of the State and the Ministry of Health - General Surgery Department of Zhongshan Hospital and the Institute of General Surgery of Fudan University, and with the synergy of relevant departments such as Medical Oncology, Radiotherapy, Pathology, Radiology, and Endoscopy Center, Gastric Cancer Multidisciplinary Diagnostic and Treatment Team (GC-MDT) of Zhongshan Hospital was established, which is routinely operated and functioning normally. On the one hand, through the Internet remote technology, GC-MDT can radiate to a wider area in a more "universal manner"; on the other hand, through the strong surgical team and the solid support of drugs, radiotherapy, internal medicine and other disciplines, GC-MDT can integrate with the cutting-edge technologies such as genetic testing and bio-immune therapy in a more "brand-new look" to realize individualized treatment to the greatest extent. At present, the MDT outpatient clinic for gastric cancer is held every Wednesday afternoon, which has vigorously pushed forward the standardized and comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer in the hospital, and has always been in the leading position in China in the field of gastric cancer diagnosis and treatment, with more than half of the cases being difficult and serious gastric cancers, including multi-comorbidities gastric cancer, super-elderly gastric cancers, gastric cancers with special anatomical sites, gastric cancers with serious postoperative complications, and multi-drug-resistant gastric cancers.

Since 2009, based on the solid foundation of standardized treatment of gastric cancer, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Sun Yat-sen Hospital has been vigorously developing laparoscopic minimally invasive surgical treatment of gastric cancer, which has rapidly reached the domestic advanced level in terms of quality and quantity in a short period of time. In 2010, it took the lead in carrying out robotic surgery for gastric cancer in China and reported the surgical experience. Since the development of laparoscopic minimally invasive surgical treatment, the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Zhongshan Hospital has attached great importance to the quality control and standardized training of laparoscopic surgery for gastric cancer, strictly grasped the indications, and actively explored and carried out clinical research. In 2012, he established the China Laparoscopic Gastrointestinal Surgery Study Group (CLASS) as a core founding member, with Prof. Sun Yihong as the vice-chairman of the group, and jointly conducted the first multi-center RCT on laparoscopic treatment of gastric cancer in China (CLASS-01) with a number of renowned centers in China and was the first to report on the safety of laparoscopic treatment of progressive distal gastric cancer in the international arena ("J Clin Oncol"). ), and then reported the efficacy of laparoscopic treatment of progressive distal gastric cancer in the top international journal JAMA, which became an important clinical evidence for the development of international gastric cancer diagnosis and treatment standard. In 2016, Prof. Sun Yihong took the lead in initiating a multi-center clinical study on the safety of laparoscopic total gastrectomy (CLASS-02), which was the first to report the safety of laparoscopic total gastrectomy in the world (Jama Oncology). In 2020, the Center will again take the lead in initiating a multicenter clinical study on the effectiveness of laparoscopic total gastrectomy (CLASS-07) and contributing to other CLASS series of clinical studies in the same period, continuing to work on the road to standardization of laparoscopic surgical treatment of gastric cancer.

Since the establishment of the gastric cancer MDT team in Zhongshan Hospital, the team has insisted on condensing scientific problems based on clinical difficulties, especially on the perioperative comprehensive treatment and overall management of progressive gastric cancer, and the research results have been published in internationally renowned journals. From the study of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (Neo-CLASSIC, Oncologist. 2019) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with targeted therapy (Neo-Apa, BMC Medicine. 2022), and take the lead in China to carry out the study of neoadjuvant radiotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitor (Neo-PLANET), neoadjuvant interventional embolization chemotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitor (Neo-ATTACTION). In the field of advanced gastric cancer, the center is committed to the research and development of new strategies and new drugs for comprehensive treatment, and has participated in a number of large-scale multi-center phase III studies around the world and in China, as well as more than 50 early research projects on new drugs, and maintains good collaborative relationships with international and domestic counterparts.

Since the establishment of the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, it has comprehensively promoted the clinical diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer and scientific research relying on multidisciplinary alliance, and devoted itself to the promotion of perioperative multidisciplinary comprehensive diagnostic and treatment concepts and techniques for difficult and complex gastric cancer patients, which has comprehensively enhanced the ability of the whole process of management services for gastric cancer patients, and it has become one of the most renowned gastric cancer diagnostic and treatment centers in the country, and the volume of new patients and the volume of surgical operations for gastric cancer The volume of new patients and gastric cancer surgeries has been ranked first among major hospitals in Shanghai. The team regularly organizes gastric cancer MDT workshops, and the trainees come from more than 100 tertiary hospitals across the country, which greatly promotes the development of gastric cancer MDT in China and expands the influence of Sun Yat-sen Hospital in the field of comprehensive treatment of gastric cancer. Strictly following the multidisciplinary collaborative treatment model, the gastric cancer MDT team has formulated the gastric tumor diagnosis and treatment guideline of Sun Yat-sen Hospital since 2013. Every year, based on the newly published clinical research evidences and updated guideline at home and abroad, and combining with the characteristics of their own hospitals, they establish individualized diagnosis and treatment process for gastric tumor patients, and their comprehensive efficacy is at a leading level in China. The 5-year survival rate of gastric cancer patients after radical surgery is as high as 66.3%, and the perioperative mortality rate is only 0.17%, which is at the international advanced level. Under the multidisciplinary team diagnosis and treatment mode of gastric cancer, the Center routinely carries out standardized radical gastric cancer surgery, minimally invasive endoscopic surgery for early gastric cancer, laparoscopic radical gastric cancer surgery and da Vinci robot-assisted radical gastric cancer surgery; it also continues to explore the best mode of comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer, and carries out individualized comprehensive treatment, including perioperative chemotherapy, radiotherapy, peritoneal thermal infusion chemotherapy, interventional embolization and perfusion chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy, and so on. We are constantly exploring the best mode of comprehensive treatment for gastric cancer.

In the future, the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University will continue to adhere to the development path of combining "general" and "specialization", integrate resources, create platforms, update concepts, and strive to be a good practitioner, promoter, and leader, relying on the Health Management Center, Endoscopy Center, Precision Medicine Center, and various chronic disease treatment departments of Zhongshan Hospital. Relying on Sun Yat-sen Hospital Health Management Center, Endoscopy Center, Precision Medicine Center and various chronic disease treatment departments, we will continue to adhere to the patient-centered approach, strengthen the fine clinical management and specialty training, effectively promote the clinical scientific research on gastric cancer and translational medicine application research, and strive to improve the overall strength in solving the difficult and complicated cases of the specialty, so as to further improve the overall diagnosis and treatment level of gastric cancer in China; at the same time, we will establish the concept of popularization of cancer prevention for the healthy population, and extend the multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment model to the medical alliances. At the same time, it will establish the concept of popularizing cancer prevention among healthy people and extend the multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment model to the alliance units of the medical association, which will help the strategic goal of Healthy China 2030.