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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2026; 32(7): 116264
Published online Feb 21, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i7.116264
Published online Feb 21, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i7.116264
From feasibility to biological recovery: Reframing enhanced recovery pathways for elderly gastric cancer patients
Gang Wang, Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
Sheng-Jie Pan, Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Gang Wang and Sheng-Jie Pan.
Author contributions: Pan SJ contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, visualization, writing-original draft, supervision. Wang G contributed to conceptualization, project administration, validation, resources, writing-review & editing. Wang G and Pan SJ contributed equally to this work as co-corresponding authors, with shared responsibility for study conception, overall supervision, and final approval of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Gang Wang, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, No. 899 Pinghai Road, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China. 286651551@qq.com
Received: November 6, 2025
Revised: November 22, 2025
Accepted: December 29, 2025
Published online: February 21, 2026
Processing time: 92 Days and 6.8 Hours
Revised: November 22, 2025
Accepted: December 29, 2025
Published online: February 21, 2026
Processing time: 92 Days and 6.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) has demonstrated safety and feasibility for elderly patients with gastric cancer, but feasibility alone does not define success. This editorial reframes ERAS as a pathway toward functional recovery-restoring biological resilience, metabolic homeostasis, and circadian stability while preserving independence. By integrating psychophysiological support, nutritional-inflammatory modulation, and digital monitoring, ERAS can evolve into an adaptive, precision rehabilitation model that bridges chronological age and biological potential.