Barrett's esophagus: endoscopic resection

In experienced hands, ER is a safe method of resecting dysplastic lesions and early carcinomas of the GI tract, and it has decisive advantages compared with other local endoscopic treatment procedures (such as thermal destruction and PDT). The opportunity for histological processing of the resected specimen provides information regarding the depth of invasion of the individual layers of the GI tract wall. Additionally, it has advantages regarding excision with healthy margins. This means that even when there is infiltration of the submucosa that has not been detected before treatment--in which case local endoscopic therapy is no longer appropriate--a patient with early Barrett's cancer still is able to undergo surgical resection. As was shown recently, the morbidity and mortality of ER are significantly dependent on the frequency with which esophagectomy is performed in each center. When there were more than 20 procedures of this type per year, the surgical mortality was 8%, whereas in centers conducting fewer than 10 procedures per year the rate was 21%. In view of the consequent claim that ER should only be performed at high-volume centers, curative endoscopic treatment of early esophageal carcinomas also should be performed only in centers with a similar frequency to that of the surgical high-volume centers. It is only in these conditions that the conclusion is defensible that patients with HGIN or mucosal Barrett's carcinoma should undergo ER with curative intent instead of radical ER. Randomized and controlled studies comparing radical esophagectomy with endoscopic therapy are desirable, but they are difficult to conduct, not least because valid 5-year survival data show no significant difference between patients who have undergone endoscopic treatment for early Barrett's cancers and the average German population of the same age and sex.