Recent advances in endoscopic management of gastrointestinal cancers

Thanks to recently developed technologies, endoscopy is gaining an increasingly important role in the management of gastrointestinal (GI) tumors. Recent advances are very important for both the diagnosis and therapy of GI cancers resulting in a minor role for other approaches such as radiology or surgery. Patients submitted to endoscopic management of GI tumors receive great benefits avoiding major surgery and performing more targeted therapies. The development of new endoscopic platforms and devices led to new techniques such as natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery technique (NOTES), peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM), endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS)-guided therapy, endobiliary radiofrequency ablation (RFA), etc. that offer alternative options to traditional therapy when performed by highly skilled and experienced endoscopists. This review will deal with the illustration of the most important recent findings in the field of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy of GI tumors both in animal models as well as in humans.