TOWARDS FURTHER PENETRATION OF ESD TECHNIQUES – WHAT IS THE ROLE OF JAPANESE ESD EXPERTS ?

The early diagnosis of early gastrointestinal (GI) diseases is becoming easier than ever before, due to the rapid development of all kinds of endoscopic techniques, including chromoendoscopy, narrowband imaging, magnifying endoscopy, confocal microscopy and autofluorescence imaging. Endoscopic resection is gradually becoming the optimal choice, which is significantly less invasive than conventional surgical interventions. In China, endoscopic resection techniques have been developed very quickly after several pioneers learned from Japanese gastroenterologists. Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has achieved remarkable initial outcomes, however, large-scale, multicenter, retrospective studies of the long-term follow up of ESD outcomes in China are still lacking. New endoscopic interventions are also being developed from the ESD technique, namely, endoscopic full-thickness resection of gastric submucosal tumors, peroral endoscopic myotomy and submucosal tunneling endoscopic resection techniques. Here, we discuss the current status of endoscopic resection in China and several problems: (i) the lack of guideline or consensus from academic society; (ii) approximately half of the ESD are performed on benign submucosal tumors, so the diagnosis of mucosal cancers needs to be increased; (iii) the standard technique used, results, management of complications and follow-up should be standardized; and (iv) the minimum training requirements, the step-by-step approach should also need to be standardized.