Published online Feb 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i4.482
Peer-review started: October 29, 2018
First decision: November 27, 2018
Revised: December 25, 2018
Accepted: January 8, 2019
Article in press: January 8, 2019
Published online: February 26, 2019
Processing time: 121 Days and 2.9 Hours
Chemotherapy is a standard strategy for stage IV gastric cancer patients. However, some cases cannot undergo conversion surgery because of their frailty, even if the patients had response to chemotherapy. For these patients, local tumor progression is a problem. We report here the case of a patient whose residual gastric cancer was resected through endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) after concomitant chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer.
An 85-year-old male complained of difficulty swallowing, and examination revealed gastric cancer with multiple liver metastases. Although he received concomitant chemotherapy, a residual tumor was observed in the primary lesion while the metastatic lesions disappeared completely. Conversion surgery was considered optional treatment; however, he could not undergo that because of advanced age and comorbidities. Thus, we performed ESD to treat the residual tumor. As a result, we resected the residual lesion completely. The patient has been alive for 29 mo since ESD, without recurrence.
We achieved local control using ESD, and these findings may provide therapeutic improvements both in local control and patient survival outcomes.
Core tip: Some cases cannot undergo conversion surgery because of their frailty, even if the patients had response to chemotherapy. For these patients, local tumor progression is a problem. We resected a residual tumor completely using endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) after chemotherapy in an elderly patient who was unable to undergo conversion surgery due to his age and comorbidities. The patient has been alive without recurrence for 29 mo after the ESD. ESD may provide therapeutic improvements in both local control and patient survival outcomes.