ENDOSCOPIC THERAPY FOR EARLY GASTRIC-CANCER - UTILITY OF ENDOSONOGRAPHY AND EVALUATION OF PROGNOSIS

We analyzed 30 endoscopically treated patients with early gastric canc er in terms of the utility of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and the evaluation of prognosis. Endoscopic therapy for early gastric cancer included strip biopsy, laser irradiation, and OK-432 injection. Examin ation of the depth of cancer invasion in the strip biopsy specimens sh owed that the diagnostic accuracy of EUS was 85.7%. Complete resection rate in strip biopsy was 82.8%, and the patients with incompletely re sected cancer were successfully treated with laser irradiation and/or OK432 injection, The prognosis of the patients treated with strip biop sy was good. Three patients died of causes other than gastric cancer. Local recurrence and a heterochronous new lesion developed in six pati ents, but all of these cases were successfully treated with additional strip biopsy. All but one patient treated with laser irradiation and/ or OK 432 injection survived during the study period. These results su ggest that EUS is useful in determining the indication of endoscopic t herapies and that prognosis is good in patients with early gastric can cer treated endoscopically.