早期胆嚢癌の診断への歩みと現状

The Diagnosis of Early Gallbladder Cancer: The course of its establishment and the present degree it has reached

要旨　多少とも，組織だった早期胆囊癌診断学の研究は，まだ始まったばかりであるが，特に超音波検査法の発達・普及につれて，胆道系疾患の研究者の関心は，いま早期胆嚢癌の術前診断に向けられている．この論文では，その歩みを文献的考察を中心にして，編年的に追求してみた．現状としては，ある大きさ以上の隆起型の早期胆囊癌症例は，術前にもかなりの程度まで診断が可能になってきたと言えよう．しかし，それもたかだかこの2，3年間の出来事である．そしていま，早期胆囊癌診断を主な目標とした幾つかの新しい診断方法が出現している．この現状をみると，わが国における早期胆囊癌診断学の確立に，どうやら明るい灯が見えてきたと言えるだろう．しかし，小さい隆起型や平坦型の診断を考えると，まだ気が遠くなる思いをしている．

　Although a well organized study on diagnosis of early gallbladder cancer has just started, with the advance and wide use of ultrasonography in this field, much attention among the researchers has been paid to how to diagnose this disease in its curable stage.

　In this article, the advance of diagnostic technique is introduced through a presentation of literature produced about it annually.

　At present, we can say confidently that, along with progress in imaging, the diagnosis of elevated type of gallbladder cancer has become much easier, needless to say, this great advance has been made only during the past few years.

　Now, some new trials for early detection of gallbladder cancer have been performed. The result is that we have reached a stage which shows great promise for the establishment, in the very near future, of a process for the early diagnosis of gallbladder cancer.