Efficacy and Feasibility of Magnifying Blue Laser Imaging without Biopsy Confirmation for the Diagnosis of the Demarcation of Gastric Tumors: A Randomized Controlled Study

Dig Dis. 2021;39(2):156-164. doi: 10.1159/000510559. Epub 2020 Jul 30.

Abstract

Background: Accurate diagnosis of the demarcation line (DL) of gastric tumors is essential for curative complete resection by endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). It is controversial to perform only magnifying endoscopy for diagnosing the DL of gastric tumors prior to ESD. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy for the DL of gastric adenomas and well-differentiated adenocarcinomas using only magnifying blue laser imaging (M-BLI) compared with that using both M-BLI and biopsy confirmation.

Methods: In this prospective, single-center study, 96 well-differentiated adenocarcinomas and 32 gastric adenomas were enrolled between July 2015 and December 2016. A total of 122 lesions with a clear DL on M-BLI were randomly allocated to undergo M-BLI only (the M-BLI group) or M-BLI with biopsy confirmation (the M-BLI-BC group), performed as biopsies in 4 directions from noncancerous tissues ≈ 5 mm outside the lesion before ESD. The primary end point was to clarify the noninferiority of M-BLI without biopsy confirmation compared with that with biopsy confirmation, in terms of the diagnostic accuracy and complete resection.

Results: There were no significant differences in sex, median age, color, circumference, macroscopic type, biopsy-based diagnosis, and Helicobacter pylori infection between the 2 groups. The diagnostic accuracy for the DL was 100 and 95.0% and the complete resection was 100 and 100% in the M-BLI and M-BLI-BC groups, respectively.

Conclusion: The diagnostic ability of M-BLI is excellent in diagnosing the demarcation of gastric adenoma and well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. Biopsy confirmation is not needed for these lesions with a clear DL by M-BLI.

Keywords: Biopsy confirmation; Blue laser imaging; Demarcation line; Gastric cancer; Magnifying endoscopy.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Biopsy
  • Diagnostic Errors
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Lasers*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Prospective Studies
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Stomach / pathology*
  • Stomach Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Stomach Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Treatment Outcome