[Endoscopic therapy of gastrointestinal cancer and its curability]

Endoscopic laser therapy was applied to the patients with early gastric cancer in surgically high risk. Results were as follow. (1) 31 lesions of 23 patients with early gastric cancer were treated by endoscopic Nd-YAG laser irradiation. About 76% of lesions were removed completely. (2) The laser therapy was effective in the cases of elevated type, small type, mucosal type and well differentiated type of the early gastric cancer. (3) According to statistical study of early gastric cancer operated in Japan, metastasis to regional lymph-node occurred in 4% of mucosal cancer. But lymph-nodes metastasis could not be found in the cases of pedunculated protruded type early cancer, II a type mucosal cancer smaller than 1cm, and II c type well differentiated adenocarcinoma limited to the mucosal layer with no ulceration. (4) There was no major complication in our therapy. Endoscopic Nd YAG laser therapy seems to become one of the therapeutic choice for small early gastric cancer (m) in elderly or critically ill patients.