This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Blue laser imaging better at detecting early gastric cancer
The use of blue laser imaging-bright during screening for early gastric cancer was better at detecting the disease than the more commonly used white-light imaging, according to research published in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
Osamu Dohi, MD, PhD, of the department of molecular gastroenterology and hepatology at the graduate school of medicine science at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan, and colleagues wrote that blue laser imaging (BLI)-bright should be used during all surveillance endoscopy in patients at high risk for early gastric cancer (EGC).
“Esophagogastroduodenoscopy has been the most useful examination for early detection and treatment of gastric cancer. Although white-light imaging (WLI) is widely used for detection of EGC during [esophagogastroduodenoscopy], it is often difficult to detect gastric cancers using this modality,” they wrote. “BLI-bright is expected to be more useful than BLI for detection of EGC via distant views. However, the diagnostic performance of BLI-bright in the real-time detection of EGC has not been investigated to date.”
Investigators conducted a randomized controlled study of 629 patients undergoing follow-up endoscopy for atrophic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia or surveillance after endoscopic resection of EGC. They randomly assigned patients to primary WLI followed by BLI-bright (n = 298) or primary BLI-bright followed by WLI (n = 298) and compared the real-time detection rates of EGC between both methods.
Dohi and colleagues found that the real-time EGC detection rate for primary BLI-bright was higher than the primary WLI detection rate (93.1% vs. 50%; P = .001). Primary BLI-bright was also better at identifying EGC in several other areas, including small lesions and in patients with a history of endoscopic resection for EGC.
Dohi and colleagues wrote that the BLI-bright method helped in improving the brightness and enhancement of the vessels and their structures on the mucosal surface, making it easier to detect EGC.
“BLI-bright was bright enough to allow surveillance of the entire gastric lumen,” they wrote. “In addition, BLI-bright depicts an EGC as a well-demarcated brownish or discolored area with an irregular mucosa. Thus, our diagnostic criteria for EGCs using BLI-bright appear to be acceptable for detection of these tumors.” – by Alex Young
Disclosures: Dohi reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.