Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and the safety of endoscopic Nd-YAG laser treatment for early gastric cancer. Endoscopic Nd-YAG laser treatment was carried out in 20 patients; 12 with, early gastric cancers and 8 with borderline lesions.
In 11 patients with endoscopic diagnosis of early gastric cancer (type IIc 9, type IIa+IIc 1 and type IIc+III 1) and in 3 patients with borderline lesions trial treatment with Nd-YAG laser was carried out 2 to 14 days before gastrectomy. In 7 cases tumor cells were eradicated from the treated area, but in the other,7 cases (submucosal infiltration 3, muscle infiltration 2 and borderline lesion 2) residual tumor were observed in the periphery or deeper layers. On the other hand, in a patient with early gastric cancer (type IIa+IIc) and in 5 patients with borderline lesions Nd-YAG laser treatment was repeated 1 to 5 times as a curative treatment. Follow-up biopsies of the treated lesions confirmed loss of cancer and atypical cells.
Our results suggest that the endoscopic Nd-YAG laser treatment can be a curative method for cases of early gastric cancer limited to mucosa orinner layer of subnucosa without metastasis.
