Short Bio
Dr. Yutaka Saito is the Director of the Endoscopy Division at the National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. He also has served as an attending Professor of Gastroenterology at Tokyo Medical University since April 2017.
He has been invited to perform as a faculty member and live demonstrator in numerous countries. He was honored for an invited professor at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota and Jacksonville, Florida in 2010, and at Arizona in 2016.
He was also commended for Basil Hirschowitz Master Endoscopist Award for advancing the art and science of endoscopy throughout the world in 2013 and Certificate of appreciation of Outstanding Reviewer for GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy 2015-2017.
He has a wide spectrum of research exposure and interests including
1. Chromo-magnification Colonoscopy;
2. Endoscopic Mucosal Resection and Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection for early gastrointestinal cancer and
3. Colon capsule endoscopy and artificial intelligence diagnosis for colorectal neoplasia
Real-time endoscopic image diagnosis using deep learning technology in colonoscopy
Image-enhance endoscopy (IEE) assists in the early detection of flat and depressed neoplasia, differentiation between non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions, and the characterization of early colorectal cancers. The Japan NBI Expert Team (JNET) was organized in 2011 to develop a universal magnifying NBI classification system. Consensus on JNET classification was reached based on univariate and multivariate analysis using a modified Delphi method on June 6, 2014.
In the western countries, however, magnified endoscopic diagnosis is not yet widely adopted. There is immense variability in the diagnostic ability of flat and depressed neoplasia among endoscopists, and solutions are critically needed.
An AI using a deep learning system that automatically detect pre-cancerous lesion and diagnose the estimated histology during colonoscopy is currently available.
As for therapeutic procedures, lesions smaller than 2cm are generally treated with endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR). In case of lesions larger than 2cm, piecemeal EMR is inevitable. The main advantage of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) over EMR is completeness of resection as it enables en bloc removal of lesions irrespective of lesion size. This allows a definitive histological diagnosis and staging of superficially invasive cancers which is significantly superior to piecemeal EMR providing a treatment alternative to surgery for early colorectal cancer with no risk of lymph-node metastasis.
Colorectal ESD has gained acceptance as a safe and effective therapeutic option not only in Japan but also in western countries and is considered as the mainstream treatment for some neoplastic lesions with distinctive features.