Endoscopic Diagnosis and Treatment for Early Gastric Cancer

Endoscopic detection of gastric cancers at an early stage is important because these cancers are highly curable. However, more than 50% of all gastric cancers in Japan, but less so in other countries, are early gastric cancers. An increasing understanding and recognition of the importance of early gastric cancers have resulted in an increased detection and diagnosis of early cancerous lesions, and provided an excellent prognosis. The early gastric cancers can be subtle and difficult to detect or diagnose because the endoscopic features of these cancers are less known. When the gastric lesions are detected at an early stage, considering the risks of surgery and the patient's poor quality of life after gastrectmy, it is sensible to offer endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) because of their low risk of lymph node metastasis. The purpose of this review is to introduce endoscopic procedures for detecting early gastric cancer as well as the EMR methods for carrying out proper treatment.