Background: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a widely accepted technique for the management of gastric tumors. However, residual or recurrent tumors can occur after ESD; currently, there is no adequate management strategy for these tumors. Thus, the aim of the present study was to establish a strategy of secondary ESD (sESD) for cases with positive lateral margins (LM+), which cause post-ESD residual or recurrent tumors.
Methods: Fifty-three lesions that were subjected to ESD were diagnosed as LM+ with suspected local residual tumor. The short- and long-term outcomes of early sESD (performed shortly after the initial ESD in LM+ cases to prevent local recurrence) were retrospectively compared with those of late sESD (performed after the detection of recurrent tumors).
Results: Of the 53 LM+ cases, the local residual positive rate was 38.5 % (10/26) in those undergoing early sESD or additional surgery and the local recurrence rate was 29.6 % (8/27) in those that were not treated. Thus, the overall incidence of residual or recurrent tumors in LM+ cases was 34.0 % (18/53). Both early and late sESD had favorable outcomes with no severe complications: 100 % of early sESD resections were curative, compared with 86.7 % of late sESD resections, over the course of a mean (±SD) observation period of 50.8 ± 16.7 months. The performance of early sESD was significantly greater than that of late sESD (in terms of dissection speed).
Conclusions: Early sESD is more reliable than late sESD as a therapeutic strategy for salvaging residual tumors and for preventing recurrence. However, if a tumor has already recurred, late sESD remains useful.