How to detect gastrointestinal cancer early?

(Dan Tri) - Gastrointestinal cancer is a common cancer group in our country. Endoscopy is the only way to detect it early, thereby providing timely treatment, reducing medical costs and increasing the patient's chance of survival.

On October 4 in Quang Ninh, the Vietnam Interventional Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Association held the first national scientific conference with the theme "Improving Endoscopy Practice: Global Insights for Local Impact".

According to statistics, Vietnam currently has about 8,000-10,000 gastroenterologists, of which about 5,000 are gastroenterologists.

Diagnostic endoscopy is becoming more and more popular, especially at the provincial level, but many units still use the old system to reduce costs. The integration and development of advanced techniques in digestive endoscopy is expected to create a breakthrough, raise the quality standards of diagnosis and treatment, thereby improving the quality of medical examination and treatment for people.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Cong Long, President of the Vietnam Interventional Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Association (Photo: BA).

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Cong Long, President of the Vietnam Interventional Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Association, said that the first conference is an important milestone, marking the maturity of the interventional gastrointestinal endoscopy profession in Vietnam.

"We integrate global knowledge but the goal is to transform it into practical capacity in each locality, to improve the quality of people's health care," Associate Professor Long emphasized.

According to him, Vietnam is facing four major challenges. These are the disparity in equipment resources and anesthesia and resuscitation between levels; differences in epidemiology and operating procedures compared to the international research context; gaps in training standards, supervision and external quality control; and the need to improve the legal framework and payment for new techniques.

Nowadays, interventional endoscopic techniques are becoming a revolution in the treatment of digestive diseases. From being a mere diagnostic tool, endoscopy has now developed strongly into an effective, minimally invasive treatment tool.

Previously, patients with diseases such as colon polyps, esophageal strictures, gastrointestinal bleeding, gallstones, etc. had to undergo open surgery with many risks and long recovery times. Currently, interventional endoscopic techniques help diagnose early, treat minimally invasively, safely, reduce costs and shorten hospital stays.

From being just a diagnostic tool, endoscopy has now developed strongly into an effective treatment tool (Illustration: BA).

According to statistics, gastrointestinal cancer accounts for more than 30% of all cancers in general. Cancers related to the digestive tract include stomach, esophageal, liver, gallbladder, pancreatic, colorectal, etc.

Endoscopy is the only way to detect gastrointestinal cancer early. There are now many modern machines that can magnify and change color to easily identify lesions.

Therefore, improving the capacity of interventional endoscopy means improving the ability to detect early and treat promptly, reduce the burden of disease, reduce medical costs and increase the chance of survival for millions of patients. If screening endoscopy is widely deployed, especially at the provincial and grassroots levels, the burden of disease and medical costs will be greatly reduced.

The conference gathered more than 1,500 delegates, 100 domestic reporters and many leading experts from France, India, Japan, Korea, China...

The scientific sessions focused on updating international standards and discussing advanced techniques such as submucosal dissection (ESD), peroral esophageal myotomy (POEM), endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), endoscopic cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), as well as solutions for treating early neoplasms with radiofrequency and microwaves.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/lam-the-nao-de-phat-hien-som-ung-thu-duong-tieu-hoa-20251004164749798.htm