ObjectiveTo explore the clinical applicability and safety of nanocarbon in patients with gastric cancer, and evaluate its application value in radical gastrectomy.MethodsCollectted relevant literatures on radical gastrectomy for nanocarbon scales from the time of construction of the library to February 2019, according to search databases included PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, China Journal Full-text Database (CNKI), and Wanfang. The data of lymph node detection, detection time, number of lymph node metastases, and postoperative complications were extracted from the two groups. We systematically evaluated it, and analyzed the two groups by using RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsWe searched 88 articles and selected 10 articles, including 5 randomized controlled trials and 5 case-control studies. There were 784 patients in the nanocarbon group and 695 patients in the non-nanocarbon group. Results of meta analysis on the clinical utility and safety of nanocarbon labeled lymph nodes showed that, the number of lymph node detection, lymph node detection time, and number of lymph node metastases in the nanocarbon group and non-nanocarbon group were statistically significant (P<0.05), they were better in the nanocarbon group. There was no significant difference in postoperative complications between the two groups (P>0.05).ConclusionsNanocarbon has a clear trace effect on lymph nodes of gastric cancer. It can reduce the difficulty of the number of lymph node detection, improve the detection rate of lymph nodes, and avoid blindness during traditional lymph node dissection.