Evaluation Of Endoscopic Ultrasonography In The Preoperative Staging Of Gastric Cancer: The Invasive Depth And Resectability

BACKGROUND: Current study was aimed to evaluate the usefulness of EUS in TNM staging of gastric cancer by comparing EUS preoperative staging with pathological findings, and the preliminary exploration of possible reasons for above-mentioned phenomenon was especially intended. METHODS: A total of 32 patients with histologically confirmed gastric adenocarcinoma were referred to EUS and stageed preoperatively by using the TNM system. The preoperative endosonographic results were compared with the histopathological staging. RESULTS: The overall accuracy of EUS for determination of the T stage was 78.1%, and for T1, T2, T3, and T4 were 100%, 71.4%, 85.7% and 70%, respectively. For N stage, EUS had the accuracy of 68.8%, withsensitivity and specificity of 61.5% of 73.7%, respectively. Resectability was predicted with sensitivity and specificity of 88% and 100%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The accuracy of EUS in determining cancer invasive depth and resectability is relatively high. Gastric carcinomas patients will benefit from preoperative EUS for choosing individual therapy. However, EUS criteria to differentiate benign and malignant nodes are not defined.