Introduction: In Vietnam, gastric cancer (GC) ranks 4th in incidence and 3rd in mortality among all cancers. Most of the new GC cases in Vietnam were diagnosed at an advanced stage. Data on early gastric cancer (EGC) in Vietnam is very limited. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence, endoscopic and histopathological characteristics of EGC among Vietnamese patients.

Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at the University Medical Center of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from January 2014 to December 2019.  Electronic medical records of patients with EGC were reviewed to collect data regarding age, gender, endoscopic findings of EGC lesions (including location, size, and their type according to the Japanese classification of gastric carcinoma), and histopathological characteristics of these lesions based on the resected gastric specimens.

Results: Among 1666 patients with GC, there were 67 EGC cases, accounting for 4.0%. All of the patients diagnosed with EGC were older than 40 years. The detection rate of EGCs gradually increased during the study period. The EGC lesions were mostly located in the antrum-incisura angularis (73.1%) with a median diameter of 1.0 cm. Regarding macroscopic types, a majority of these lesions were classified as type 0-IIc (31.3%) and type 0-IIa+0-IIc (29.9%). The most common histological type of EGC was adenocarcinoma (82.1%) and poorly differentiated type (40.3%).

Conclusions: EGCs are mainly detected in individuals aged over 40 years. EGC lesions are commonly located in the antrum-incisura angularis and have characteristic features including the macroscopic and histological types.

Introduction: Gastric cancer is one of the highly malignant gastrointestinal cancers and the third leading cause of cancer death. In the last decade, early gastric cancer (EGC) has been reported by using narrow-band imaging (NBI) magnifying endoscopy. Advances in endoscopic techniques, such as endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), have enabled the en bloc resection of these EGC. Although ESD is performed for early gastric cancer, there are still many difficult problems in technique of this procedure. The difficulty of gastric ESD depends on the size and location of a tumor, presence of severe submucosal fibrosis, presence of ulceration... We report a case of our successful ESD by using Clutch cutter and IT knife 2 in treatment of EGC with severe submucosal fibrosis.

Case presentation: A 62-year-old man felt an epigastric discomfort two months ago. The narrow-band imaging (NBI) magnifying endoscopy revealed a suspected early gastric cancer type 0 - IIa + IIc (Japanese classification of early gastrointestinal cancers) at the incisura angularis, the size of this lesion was 15 mm in diameter, and pathological result of endoscopic biopsy was a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. ESD was performed and we found there was severe submucosal fibrosis which was dissected safer and faster by using Clutch cutter and IT knife 2. There were no complications such as severe bleeding and perforation. The size of resected specimen was 60 x 35 mm and the time of procedure was 150 minutes. After ESD, the pathological result was a well differentiated adenocarcinoma, pT1a, UL(-), LY(-), V(-), no cancer cell in vertical and horizontal margins. The healing time of ESD-induced ulcer was 5 weeks without local recurrence.

Conclusion: Through this case, we aim to emphasize the importance of using Clutch cutter and IT knife 2 as a modified technique which makes ESD a safe procedure in treatment of EGC with severe submucosal fibrosis.