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Artif Intell Gastrointest Endosc. Aug 28, 2021; 2(4): 185-197
Published online Aug 28, 2021. doi: 10.37126/aige.v2.i4.185
Early gastrointestinal cancer: The application of artificial intelligence
Hang Yang, Bing Hu
Hang Yang, Bing Hu, Department of Gastroenterology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: All authors participated in the work; Yang H contributed to the design and draft of the manuscript; Hu B contributed to the design and review of the manuscript.
Supported by the 1·3·5 project for disciplines of excellence Clinical Research Incubation Project, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China, No. 20HXFH016.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bing Hu, MD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guo Xue Xiang, Wu Hou District, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. hubingnj@163.com
Received: June 11, 2021
Peer-review started: June 11, 2021
First decision: June 24, 2021
Revised: June 25, 2021
Accepted: August 18, 2021
Article in press: August 18, 2021
Published online: August 28, 2021
Processing time: 86 Days and 19.6 Hours
Abstract

Early gastrointestinal (GI) cancer has been the core of clinical endoscopic work. Its early detection and treatment are tightly associated with patients’ prognoses. As a novel technology, artificial intelligence has been improved and applied in the field of endoscopy. Studies on detection, diagnosis, risk, and prognosis evaluation of diseases in the GI tract have been in development, including precancerous lesions, adenoma, early GI cancers, and advanced GI cancers. In this review, research on esophagus, stomach, and colon was concluded, and associated with the process from precancerous lesions to early GI cancer, such as from Barrett’s esophagus to early esophageal cancer, from dysplasia to early gastric cancer, and from adenoma to early colonic cancer. A status quo of research on early GI cancers and artificial intelligence was provided.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Early esophageal cancer; Early gastric cancer; Early colonic cancer

Core Tip: Diagnosis and management of early gastrointestinal (GI) cancer is one of the cores of clinical practice. Endoscopy is the indispensable tool for standard surveillance and management. Artificial intelligence is a novel technology used in some fields of cancer including early GI cancer. Therefore, we provide an overview and introduce how artificial intelligence can be applied to endoscopy on early GI cancer mainly including esophagus, stomach, and colon from the point of view of the clinical diagnosis and management guidelines. Studies with quality control on the diagnosis and management of early GI cancer and their precancerous lesions have also been concluded.