Gastrointestinal cancer: The opportunity for endoscopic intervention when detected early

Doctor Tran Canh, K Hospital said, to the patient cancer gastrointestinal tract, detected at an early stage not only offers a good chance of treatment, but the patient can reduce pain thanks to endoscopic intervention with ESD technique.

With this method, the patient does not have to undergo an open surgery, pain, long postoperative period, while still ensuring effective treatment.

Recently, Mr. Nguyen Huu Toan (SN 1969, in Da Nang) came for a follow-up visit at K Hospital after more than 3 years of treatment for stomach cancer by endoscopic technique, in a good condition. health stability.

Before, in 2019, when he had symptoms of shortness of breath, after eating or belching, he just thought he had common gastritis, so he went to a hospital in Da Nang to get checked. Here, the doctor said that his stomach had an ulcer and diagnosed him with stomach cancer. With this condition, the patient will have to undergo gastric bypass surgery.

Mr. Toan said that because he had an acquaintance who was a doctor in Hanoi, he went to K Hospital for a checkup. The results of tests, scans, and endoscopy confirmed that he had stomach cancer at an early stage. At this stage, the patient can completely be endoscopically intervened by ESD technique. “When I intervened, I did not feel any pain. Up to now, it has been more than 3 years, my health is still normal and I perform annual check-ups”, said patient Toan.

Not only patient Toan, many cancer patients came to K Hospital and received endoscopic intervention to treat early gastrointestinal cancer with ESD technique. Dang Van Duong (from Hai Duong) discovered esophageal cancer in 2020, an acquaintance who is a doctor who introduced him to K Hospital.

Here, Dr. Tran Canh examined the patient, determined that he had early-stage cancer in the remaining esophagus and ordered endoscopic resection of cancerous tissue using ESD technique. Only 24 hours after the intervention, the patient was eating and drinking normally.

Doctor Tran Canh said that ESD (Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection), also known as endoscopic soft endoscopic submucosal dissection, is a minimally invasive procedure in early gastrointestinal cancer treatment to help patients preserve intact gastrointestinal tract.

To implement this technique, in 2017, K Hospital sent a doctor to Japan to study. Dr. Canh said that while studying in Japan, he noticed that the majority of gastrointestinal cancer patients received ESD endoscopic intervention, while at that time in Vietnam, the number of patients receiving intervention with this technique is still very modest.

Upon returning to Vietnam, in March 2018, Doctor Canh performed the first ESD case for a 73-year-old female patient (from Nghe An hometown) with early gastric cancer. The patient underwent intervention by submucosal dissection (ESD), which removed the entire lesion but did not require gastrectomy or chemotherapy. To date, the patient is still healthy.

Up to now, there have been about 1,000 cases of gastrointestinal cancer performed by ESD at sites such as stomach, colon, esophagus, submucosa, with many different sizes and locations. In which, there are very difficult positions such as small curvature of the stomach, cardia, body with large size, or adhesion when dissection.

Canh said that in recent years, the number of cancer patients is increasing, especially gastrointestinal cancer. If diagnosed early, patients have the opportunity to intervene to completely remove the tumor by ESD technique. This technique has many advantages that is a less invasive technique, helping to preserve the gastrointestinal tract intact, returning the patient to a completely normal life.

Moreover, the hospital stay is short, only 24 hours after the intervention, the patient can eat and drink again. In particular, it will help patients reduce treatment costs, improve quality of life, no pain, no hair loss, no fatigue. And the special thing is that it is possible to completely cure the evil cancer.

However, this technique can only be performed in patients with early-stage cancer. Therefore, Dr. Canh recommends that people pay attention to health care and have the habit of regular medical examination even when there are no suspicious symptoms. Early detection offers a good chance of treatment for cancer patients, with a high cure rate in those detected at an early stage.

Up to now, ESD technology has been transferred by K Hospital to many other hospitals in the country. Up to now, K Hospital has organized 3 courses on “screening and early intervention for gastrointestinal cancer” taught by Dr. Tran Duc Canh, with nearly 30 doctors in hospitals across the country. .

Doctor Hoang Thu Trang (Central Endocrinology Hospital) is also an early approach to interventional endoscopy. Dr. Trang said that ESD technique is super difficult. If the endoscopic technique has 10 steps, then the ESD technique is at the 10th step. Accordingly, the easiest is gastric and duodenal endoscopy, then small polyps, large polyps… and finally ESD. Ordinary people can reach 7 points, excellent people are 9th and 10th step.

According to Dr. Trang, ESD technique is currently the most developed in Japan and Korea… This is a sophisticated, extremely difficult technique that requires dexterity and meticulousness. In addition, not everyone who comes home from ESD can do it, but it depends on the efforts of each individual.

Dr. Trang affirmed that the key to cancer treatment is the early stage when it is still localized and has not metastasized to other locations. However, early cancer detection is not easy, requires great knowledge. For ESD technique, this intervention brings many benefits to the patient.