Recent Advances in Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Management of Gastric Malignancy: A Literature Review

The current gold standard treatment for early gastric cancer (EGC) is en bloc resection with D2 lymph node dissection because GC tends to spread to the lymph nodes at an early stage. Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and laparoscopic gastrectomy may be considered as treatment options for EGC, depending on oncological stage. ESD provide local treatment only. Sentinel node (SN) mapping can indicate which nodes will be the first to be affected. Local resection of the primary lesion with SN biopsy would therefore be an ideal treatment for EGC. ESD followed by SN biopsy involve full-thickness resection of the gastric wall, and it is expected that they will be more commonly used for the treatment of appropriate stages of EGC in the near future.