Long-term Outcome after Endoscopic Resection for Early Gastric Cancer in Korea

ABSTRACT

Endoscopic resection is accepted as the standard treatment for early gastric cancer (EGC) without lymph-node metastasis. The indications for endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) have been expanded from the standard indications of endoscopic mucosal resection. Recently, clinical data supporting further expansion of ESD have been accumulating. In Korea, recent large scale studies have reported favorable long-term outcomes for EGCs that meet the expanded indications, with 5-year overall survival rates similar to those of EGCs meeting the absolute indication. Additionally, several reports on comparison of long-term outcome after endoscopic resection versus surgical treatment have been published. This review elucidates the feasibility of endoscopic resection for EGC, based on evidence from long-term outcome in Korea. There are still some limitations associated with retrospective analyses and subsequent biased analysis of outcome based on the post-treatment diagnostic groups and problematic follow-up loss.