Chronological Trend of Opportunistic Endoscopic Screening for Gastric Cancer and Atrophic Gastritis.

BACKGROUND: Opportunistic endoscopic screening for gastric cancer was initiated in 2004 at our institute. We investigated chronological trends in gastric cancer detection rates based on individual characteristics and atrophic gastritis prevalence. METHODS: Overall, 15,081 asymptomatic individuals aged ≥40 years without a medical history of gastric cancer underwent first-time esophagogastroduodenoscopy in our institute between February 2004 and December 2017. We retrospectively investigated individual characteristics and endoscopic diagnoses by period (early period: 2004-2007, middle period: 2008-2012, and late period: 2013-2017), clarified the long-term detection rate and the characteristics of endoscopic screening-detected gastric cancer, and evaluated the relationship between gastric cancer and atrophic gastritis. RESULTS: Gastric cancer detection rates in the early, middle, and late periods were 1.01% (76/7,503, men/women: 4,360/3,143, average age: 59.4 years, prevalence of atrophic gastritis: 72%), 0.69% (40/5,820, men/women: 3,668/2,152, average age: 56.8 years, prevalence of atrophic gastritis: 48%), and 0.46% (8/1,758, men/women: 1,083/675, average age: 58.7 years, prevalence of atrophic gastritis: 37%), respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that male sex (odds ratio 1.92, 95% confidence interval 1.28-2.95), age ≥75 years (2.73, 95% CI 1.32-5.05), and atrophic gastritis (C1-C3: 2.21, 1.36-3.73, O1-O3: 5.36, 3.17-9.30) were significantly associated with the incidence of gastric cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The gastric cancer detection rate and atrophic gastritis prevalence have decreased over time. However, continuing endoscopic screening is important, especially for those at a high risk of developing gastric cancer complicated by severe atrophic gastritis.

Evaluating the efficacy and safety of a novel endoscopic fluorescence imaging modality using oral 5-aminolevulinic acid for colorectal tumors.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Five-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is being increasingly used for photodynamic diagnosis and therapy of various types of tumors including brain, urologic, and other neoplasias. The use of 5-ALA to treat Barrett's carcinomas has been documented, but its clinical effectiveness for diagnosis of gastrointestinal tumors, particularly early cancers, remains unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The aim of our feasibility study was to evaluate the visibility of colorectal tumors using endoscopic fluorescence imaging (EFI) after oral administration of 5-ALA. The lesions identified by direct visualization and by the spectrums produced using EFI modality with 5-ALA were compared to the clinicopathologic features of resected specimens. RESULTS: Twenty-three patients with a total of 27 known colorectal lesions were enrolled in the study. The median tumor size was 30 mm (range 10 - 75). Eleven of the lesions were flat or depressed lesions and 16 were sessile. Red fluorescence was observed in 22 out of 27 lesions. Red fluorescence was negative in 4 out of 11 flat or depressed lesions. In comparison with histopathologic findings, the rates of red fluorescence visibility were 62.5 % in low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, 77.8 % in high-grade neoplasia, and 100 % in submucosal carcinoma. Red fluorescence visibility increased with the degree of dysplasia. There were no significant adverse events identified in this study. CONCLUSIONS: This feasibility study using EFI with 5-ALA demonstrated high visibility of superficial colorectal neoplasia. EFI with 5-ALA appears to be a novel, safe technique for improving real-time colorectal tumor imaging.