Current topics of endoscopic diagnosis and treatment for colorectal cancer in Japan

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of death in Japan, and recently the incidence has still gradually increased. To prevent CRC, early detection in addition to removal of precancerous and early cancerous lesions is the most important to improve the prognosis of patients, and colonoscopy is definitely the most powerful tool for both detection and resection. This review is intended to provide an overview of colonoscopic diagnostic techniques including chromoendoscopy, magnified colonoscopy, and the newly developed narrow band imaging.