Editor Name: Atsushi Mitsunaga

Designation: Associate Professor, Department of Endoscopy, Yachiyo Medical Center

Country: Japan

University: Tokyo Women's Medical University

Email: 

BIOGRAPHY

After 1984, I have been involved in the diagnosis treatment of upper gastrointestinal disease with endoscopy. What I first dealt with was a diagnosis of gastric submucosal tumor using endoscopic ultrasonography. At that time, there was no effective qualitative diagnostic method for gastrointestinal submucosal tumor and by clarifying that endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) was an effective examination method, I received doctorate with the thesis with that results. In 1987, I was involved in the treatment of early gastrointestinal cancer (especially early gastric cancer) using endoscopy. Through the results of the treatments, I clarified that no difference was found between the surgical treatment and endoscopic treatment in the prognosis of the early stage cancer if it does not show the possibility of lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, endoscopic treatment is a safe treatment method for the early stage cancer for the seniors and I publicized through academic society's meetings and thesis that endoscopic treatment, which has great QOL, is a critical treatment method for early stage gastrointestinal cancer in Japan, where population of senior citizen is growing rapidly. Also, I cooperated in the development of bio-polar snare which is a brand new type of snare, a device used in endoscopic treatment, with Zeon Medical Inc, and it was implemented clinically. I publicized the research results in specialized academic society meetings and thesis in Japan as well as abroad. When determining whether endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is an appropriate treatment or not, it is necessary to diagnose an accurate invasion depth, and EUS is widely used as a diagnosis method. However, the accuracy has been low with 70 to 80% so it is not at the satisfactory level. On the other hand, a recent study has done invasion depth diagnosis using EUS from a new perspective and got the accuracy around 95%. I have reported the results in academic society meetings in Japan and abroad and wrote a thesis on it. 1)Presently, I have been examining characteristics of the metachronous gastric cancer after the Helicobacter pylori eradication based on case studies 2) and establishing the surveillance method of metachronous gastric cancer after the Helicobacter pylori eradication.