Endoscopic mucosal resection is a treatment for early gastric cancer and has been pioneered in Japan. Many studies have been carried out on the usefulness of this treatment. These can be found in MEDLINE.
The tumor is removed from the wall of the stomach using an endoscope. The treatment has some advantages over surgery as it removes less of the stomach. It is not clear if this treatment is as effective as surgery. The Cochrane Collaboration (www.cochrane.org) has more information.