Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection and Teprenone for Early Gastric Cancer, With Evaluation of eCura Scoring System

Early gastric cancer is a common, malignant, tumor disease. Compared with traditional surgical methods, endoscopic mucosal dissection (ESD) is a minimally invasive surgery; however, in practice, it still carries some surgical risks. Teprenone is a common drug that protects the gastric mucosa and promotes the recovery of gastric mucosal and gastrointestinal function.

The study intended to investigate the clinical efficacy of endoscopic mucosal dissection combined with teprenone for early gastric cancer, including an evaluation of the combined treatment using the eCura scoring system, with a view to providing the results as a reference for the choice of treatment modality for early gastric cancer.

The research team performed a prospective controlled study.

The study took place in the Department of General Surgery, Huidong, at Zigong Fourth People's Hospital in Zigong, China.

Participants were patients with early gastric cancer, 58 who were admitted to the hospital between January 2019 and June 2020 and 58 who were admitted between July 2020 and December 2021.

The research team assigned: (1) the 58 patients in the earlier group to the control group, and they received treatment using endoscopic mucosal dissection; and (2) the 58 patients in the latter group to be the intervention group, and they received treatment using endoscopic mucosal dissection combined with teprenone.

The research team examined participants' postoperative: (1) abdominal pain scores; (2) size of ulcer wound area, (3) complications-delayed bleeding, ulcer perforation, fever, or abdominal pain; (4) risk as measured by the eCura scoring system-low, medium, or high risk; and (5) survival rates of those assessed at different risks under the eCura scoring systems.

Postoperatively, the intervention group's abdominal pain scores on days 3 and 5 and the size of the groups' ulcer areas at days 7 and 14 were significantly lower than those of the control group (all P < .001). The intervention group's total incidence of postoperative complications, at 3.45%, was significantly lower than that in the control group, at 20.69% (P = .004). The number of participants low risk was 39 (67.25%), as assessed by eCura scoring system, which was significantly higher than that of the control group, at 22 participants (37.93%). The intervention groups' overall survival rate, at 98.28%, was significantly higher than that of the control group, at 69.49% (P < .001).

Endoscopic mucosal dissection combined with teprenone as a treatment for early gastric cancer can achieve a significantly better therapeutic effect than can endoscopic mucosal dissection only. It can reduce the risk of postoperative complications and improve the assessment of risk found with the eCura scoring system. It can have an important role in improving the postoperative survival rate of patients with early gastric cancer and is worthy of clinical application.