The palliative endoscopic treatment of inoperable oesophagogastric and rectal cancers: a low power direct contact laser technique.

The palliative treatment of inoperable cancers of the oesophagus, gastric fundus and rectum can be difficult and unsuccessful. Laser beam irradiation therapy offers good palliation in the majority of patients but requires several treatment sessions to achieve this. We describe a small series of patients treated with a new direct contact low power laser technique using artificial sapphire probes. After one treatment, in patients with malignant dysphagia, two thirds could swallow solids and in patients with rectal cancers bleeding was stopped or reduced and diarrhoea stopped. The interval before a second treatment was needed was three and a half weeks. We feel this technique is a useful adjuvant to conventional laser therapy of inoperable gastrointestinal tract tumours, especially in providing effective palliation in one treatment session.