1994年日本学者Kitano教授为一位胃癌患者成功实施了世界上首例腹腔镜辅助远端胃切除术，此后，早期胃癌的腹腔镜根治手术在日本和韩国得到迅速开展；1999年我国学者首次报告成功完成早期胃癌的腹腔镜手术，术后患者长期存活。同年，Uyama等报告了进展期胃癌的腹腔镜D2根治术获得成功，我国多位学者也跟随这一进展，在国内迅速开展了各种腹腔镜胃癌手术，并做了很多有益的改进和创新。龚建平教授提出了胃癌"膜解剖"的概念。李国新教授等筹建了中国腹腔镜胃肠外科研究组，开展了多项多中心前瞻性随机对照临床研究，并将研究成果在国际顶级期刊发表，引起世界瞩目。

In 1994, professor Kitano of Japanese successfully performed the world's first laparoscopic assisted distal gastrectomy for a patient with gastric cancer, since then, laparoscopic radical surgery for early gastric cancer has been rapidly carried out in Japan and South Korea. In 1999, Chinese scholars first reported the successfully laparoscopic surgery for early gastric cancer and the patients survived for a long time. In the same year, professor Uyama et al reported the success of laparoscopic D2 radical gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer. Many Chinese scholars followed this progress and carried out various laparoscopic gastrectomy rapidly, and many beneficial improvements and innovations had been performed. Professor Gong Jianping putted forward the concept of "membrane anatomy" of gastric cancer. Professor Li Guoxin et al established the Chinese Laparoscopic Gastrointestinal Surgery Study Group, wihch carried out a number of multicenter prospective randomized controlled clinical studies, and published the research results in the international top journals, which has attracted worldwide attention.