Endoscopic laser-induced steam generator: a new method of treatment for early gastric cancer

The minimum invasive endoscopic treatment for early gastric cancer has been popular in Japan. The endoscopic mucosal resection and laser coagulation by Nd:YAG laser irradiation has been the popular treatment method in this field. However, the submucosal cancer has not been successfully treated by these methods. To treat the submucosal cancer endoscopically, we developed a new coagulation therapy using hot steam generated by Nd:YAG laser. The steam of which temperature was over 10 deg. in Celsius was generated by the laser power of 30 W with 5 ml/min. of saline. The steam was emitted to canine gastric wall under laparotomy or endoscopy for 50 s respectively. Follow up endoscopy was performed on 3, 7, 14, 28 days after the treatment. Histological examination was studied on 7, 28 days, and just after the emission. In the acute observation, the submucosal layer was totally coagulated. On the 7th day, ulceration with white coat was seen. The mucosal defect, submucosal coagulation, and marked edema without muscle degeneration were found by the histological study. On the 14th day, the ulcer advanced in the scar stage. On the 28th day, it completely healed into white scar with mucosal regeneration and mucosal muscle thickening. We could obtain reproducible coagulation up to deep submucosal layer with large area in a short operation time. Moreover there were no degeneration of proper muscle. This treatment effectiveness could be easily controlled by the steam temperature and emission duration. We think that this method can be applied to early gastric cancer including the submucosal cancer, in particular poor risk case for operation. Further study should be done to apply this method to clinical therapy.