Endoscopic ultrasonography for preoperative staging of gastric carcinoma

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To assess the accuracy and limitation of endoscopic ultrasonography in preoperative staging of gastric cancer, we performed a prospective study on 99 patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Ninety-nine patients with gastric cancer had preoperative staging with endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and CT. RESULTS: The depth of infiltration (T parameter) was correctly defined by EUS in 58/65 patients (89%). The lymph node involvement (N parameter) was correctly classified in 44/65 patients (68%), the sensitivity was 74% and the specificity was 54%. The most frequent cause of understaging T parameter was microscopic tumor invasion, whereas overstaging was due to peri-tumor inflammation. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that EUS is a reliable method, superior to all diagnostic tools, in the evaluation of locoregional extension of gastric cancer.