title: Advance of endoscopy.
abstract: Recent endoscopy has made startling progress. Consequently, now endoscopists can diagnose minute (or micro) cancer less than 5 mm in diameter in the digestive organs, particularly in the stomach and the colon. However, early detection of esophageal, biliary tract, or pancreatic cancer is still insufficient in spite of application of a new apparatus or subsidiary method. Among them, regarding recent increment of the cases with pancreatic cancer, it is absolutely necessary for the improvement of a prognosis to reveal small cancer less than 2 cm in diameter, endoscopically. Usefulness of laparoscopy for the diagnosis of hepatocellular cancer is less as compared with hepatic angiography. In this paper, we summarize the present status of gastro-enterological endoscopy in Japan and point clearly the issue to solve in the future.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001661:Biliary Tract Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004379:Duodenal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D004724:Endoscopy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D004945:Esophagoscopy; D005260:Female; D005773:Gastroscopy; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis