Additional gastrectomy after endoscopic mucosal resection for early gastric cancer

The aim of this study was to examine the clinicopathological characteristics of cases undergoing additional gastrectomy after endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) for early gastric cancer (EGC) and the appropriate strategy for treating those after incomplete EMR. We studied 16 patients who underwent additional gastrectomy after EMR for EGC. The reasons for additional gastrectomy were positive horizontal margin (8 cases), indeterminate horizontal margin (2 cases), positive vertical margin (4 cases), submucosal invasion (7 cases), lymphatic invasion (4 cases), venous invasion (1 case), and local recurrence (2 cases, including overlapped cases). Residual cancer was found in 6 of the 13 cases (46%), while no lymph node metastasis was found in any case; there were cases in which local resection was possible depending on tumor location and cases in which additional gastrectomy was performed due to suspected residual cancer but the specimens were free of cancer; follow-up without intervention appears to be feasible in some of these cases. When performing additional gastrectomy after EMR, the most appropriate method should be chosen so as not to worsen the quality of life of the patient while taking radical cure into consideration.