Early Gastric Cancer in the Spanish EURECCA Registry

Early gastric cancer (EGC) is increasingly diagnosed in Western countries; however, important differences remain with Eastern populations regarding staging accuracy, treatment strategies, and the risk of lymph node metastasis. While endoscopic resection is the standard treatment for selected EGC in Asia based on well-established criteria, the applicability of these criteria to Western populations remains uncertain because of differences in epidemiology, clinical practice, and pathological characteristics. This multicenter retrospective cohort study, based on the Spanish EURECCA Registry, aims to evaluate the concordance between clinical and pathological staging, determine the real incidence and predictors of lymph node metastasis in patients with pathological T1 gastric cancer, assess the applicability of standard and expanded Asian endoscopic resection criteria in a Western cohort, and analyze long-term oncological outcomes, including recurrence and overall survival.