EUS in the management of gastric cancer

In this review we summarize latest data on the role of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) in the diagnosis and management of gastric carcinoma. Since its initial introduction in clinical practice, EUS has been considered a valuable tool for the diagnosis and locoregional staging of gastric cancer and a method of inarguable value for the assessment of gastric wall involvement and presence of infiltrated paragastric lymph nodes. Moreover, another application of EUS, i.e. its role in the assessment of early gastric cancer has come into focus, especially nowadays in the era of endoscopic mucosal resection and endoscopic submucosal dissection. These topics, together with other aspects of EUS in gastric cancer are discussed. On the other hand, despite its indisputable value, EUS for gastric cancer evaluation is “threatened” nowadays by other modern cross-sectional imaging methods (including trans-abdominal ultrasound, CT, MRI and PET), whose quality has lately improved. A brief comparison between the available imaging methods, attempts to show that their role ismore complementary than competitive. Keywords endoscopic ultrasonography, EUS, gastric cancer, locoregional staging, TNM Ann Gastroenterol 2011; 24 (1): 9-15