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World J Gastrointest Endosc. Feb 16, 2015; 7(2): 121-127
Published online Feb 16, 2015. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v7.i2.121
Circumstance of endoscopic and laparoscopic treatments for gastric cancer in Japan: A review of epidemiological studies using a national administrative database
Atsuhiko Murata, Shinya Matsuda
Atsuhiko Murata, Shinya Matsuda, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan
Author contributions: Murata A and Matsuda S contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
Correspondence to: Atsuhiko Murata, MD, PhD, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan. amurata@med.uoeh-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-93-6917244 Fax: +81-93-6034307
Received: June 16, 2014
Peer-review started: June 16, 2014
First decision: July 17, 2014
Revised: November 10, 2014
Accepted: November 27, 2014
Article in press: December 1, 2014
Published online: February 16, 2015
Abstract

Currently, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) have become widely accepted and increasingly play important roles in the treatment of gastric cancer. Data from an administrative database associated with the diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) system have revealed some circumstances of ESD and LG in Japan. Some studies demonstrated that medical costs or length of stay of patients receiving ESD for gastric cancer had become significantly reduced while length of hospitalization and costs were significantly increased in older patients. With respect to LG, some recent reports have shown that this has been a cost-beneficial treatment for patients compared with open gastrectomy while simultaneous LG and cholecystectomy is a safe procedure for patients with both gastric cancer and gallbladder stones. These epidemiological studies using the administrative database in the DPC system closely reflect clinical circumstances of endoscopic and surgical treatment for gastric cancer in Japan. However, DPC database does not contain detailed clinical data such as histological types and lesion size of gastric cancer. The link between the DPC database and another detailed clinical database may be vital for future research into endoscopic and laparoscopic treatments for gastric cancer.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, Endoscopic submucosal dissection, Laparoscopic gastrectomy, Diagnosis Pro-cedure Combination, Administrative database, Epide-miological studies

Core tip: Currently, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) have become accepted for treatment of gastric cancer and increasingly played important roles on the treatments of gastric cancer in Japan. Using the database on national administrative database associated with the diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) system, the various studies with regards to ESD and LG for gastric cancer have been revealed. We herein describe the circumstance of ESD and LG for gastric cancer in Japan based on reports using Japanese administrative database associated in the DPC system in this review.