Ancillary N.O.T.E.S. procedures for early stage gastric cancer.

The potential for performing truly scarless, safe surgery that at the same time may be less morbid is tempting both patients and physicians alike to seriously consider Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopy Surgery (NOTES) for a range of clinical applications. Given the move towards gastric-preservation by minimally invasive techniques for definitive management of early gastric cancer, this radical approach may find a niche within future clinical care paradigms for early stage malignant lesions of the stomach. Indeed already selected T1,N0 adenocarcinoma is being treated and even cured by advanced endoscopic techniques such as Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection. NOTES may initially therefore find a role in furthering the application of such endeavour by ensuring oncological providence in the treatment of those T1 lesions with higher risk of lymphatic metastases that currently are advised to lie outwith the scope of pure endoscopic resection (for reasons of oncological propriety rather than technical capacity). One such means NOTES could supplement ESD is by providing for direct sampling of sentinel nodes from the perigastric lymph basins. Subsequently perhaps a NOTES technique may develop capable of performing localized, full-thickness gastric wedge or sleeve resection for T2,N0 adenocarcinoma (and indeed perhaps other pathologies such as small gastrointestinal stromal tumors). This review examines how advancing technology along with progressive surgical thinking and innovation could lead to NOTES becoming absorbed into clinical care pathways for early gastric malignancy.