Barrett’s esophagus: Diagnosis and management

Abstract

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is one of the most rapidly increasing cancers in developed countries. EAC is thought to always or near always arise from a specialized intestinal metaplasia in the esophagus, called Barrett’s esophagus (BE), which forms in the lower esophagus in response to chronic acid refl ux injury [1]. Barrett’s esophagus occurs in 1-6.4 % of the US population and is the strongest risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) [2]. As such, people with BE are placed in surveillance programs with the intent to decrease EAC-associated mortality. Unfortunately, despite years of study of BE and EAC, it is still controversial whether current BE surveillance programs effectively decrease mortality from EAC. The controversy likelystems from low sensitivity methods for identifying people with.