Recently, endoscopic treatments have been applied for the curative treatment of early
gastrointestinal cancers and for the
palliative treatment of end-stage
gastrointestinal cancers. As a curative treatment for early
gastric cancers, the endoscopic
Nd-YAG laser therapy was initially applied and a satisfactory results were obtained. However, the endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) is evaluated as the reliable endoscopic treatment for early
gastric cancers because curability can be histologically detected by resected specimen. EMR technique is also applied for early
esophageal cancers and early flat or depressed
colon cancers. EMR-L (EMR with the use of Ligating device) developed by us is mainly practiced in our department. By the use of EMR-L technique. Resectability has been improved compared with 2 channel EMR technique. As the palliation of end-stage
gastrointestinal cancers endoscopy recanalization of malignant
esophageal stenosis is very effective to improve the patient's QOL. The memorial metallic
stent for
esophageal stenosis is very useful to keep cavity for a long term after endoscopic recanalization. PEG (percutaneous endoscopic
gastrostomy) is also very effective to reduce the symptoms of the patients with
peritonitis carcinoma or
ileus. In this paper, the present status of curative and palliative endoscopic treatment for
gastrointestinal cancers was reported. In recent future, endoscopy will be more widely applied as a less invasive therapeutic procedure for
gastrointestinal cancers.