Abstract
In order to evaluate the accuracy of endoscopic gastric examinations, out of 42 cases of gastric cancer detected by endoscopy during the period between September 2006 and August 2009, we selected 20 cases of gastric cancer lesions detected as “border-line false-negative” by repeat endoscopic examination at medical checkups, and studied their clinicopathodological characteristics as well as reviewed the records generated during the previous year. Regarding the macroscopic characteristics, all of the 20 lesions were of the early-stage depressed type (18 cases in 0-IIc, 1 in 0-IIb+Ic and 1 in 0-IIa+IIc). Regarding the histological characteristics, 12 lesions were differentiated (9 in tub1 and 3 in tub2), and 8 lesions were undifferentiated (5 in sig, 2 in por and 1 in muc). As for the maximum diameter of the cancerous lesions, 16 were 25 mm or smaller, whereas 4 were much larger than 25 mm (37 mm, 43 mm, 47 mm and 81 mm, respectively). As for the tumor stage, 17 cases were classified as pMpN0, and the 3 remaining cases were classified as pSM1pN0, pSM2pN0 and pMpN2, respectively. Our review of the records of the previous year revealed that there was no evident lesion in 5 cases (i.e., false-negative in a narrower sense), there was no mention of the location of the lesion in 4, there were evident lesions which were undetected in 8, and 3 cancerous cases had been diagnosed as non-cancerous by biopsy. Thus, since endoscopic examination sometimes produces false-negative results, it is important to recommend patients to undergo repeat endoscopic examination at medical checkups every year.
