Abstract
Background and Aims: A national survey of photodynamic therapy (PDT) was carried out in order to understand the present situation in Japan and the efficacy of PDT for gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire concerning with PDT was sent to all hospitals performing or previously performed PDT. The answers were collected and analyzed. An additional investigation about efficacy of PDT for gastric cancer was conducted for the main 3 hospitals. Results: In 18 of 19 responded hospitals, PDT was performed for 386 cases of superficial early gastric cancer and for 27 cases of advanced gastric cancer. In the 3 main hospitals, a complete response was achieved in 42 of 57 patients (73.7%) of superficial early gastric cancer not indicated for surgery or other endoscopic treatments such as endoscopic submucosal dissection. No serious complication occurred. Conclusions: PDT has been shown to be a safe and effective treatment for early gastric cancer, not only for the intramucosal type, but also for the submucosal invasion. PDT will be one of the important endoscopic treatments for gastric cancer especially in a super ageing society like Japan.