New developments in the endoscopic surveillance of Barrett's oesophagus

Patients with a Barrett's oesophagus are at risk for developing an adenocarcinoma of the distal oesophagus. Therefore, many patients undergo endoscopic surveillance to detect dysplasia and/or cancer at an early and curable stage. However, early neoplastic lesions are difficult to identify with standard endoscopy. In addition, the low incidence of these lesions, currently estimated at 0.5% per year, reduces the cost effectiveness of the surveillance strategy. New developments, aimed at improving the efficacy of Barrett's surveillance, focus on two areas: 1) improvement of the endoscopic detection of early neoplastic lesions; and 2) the use of alternative techniques for tissue sampling combined with molecular markers to identify patients at risk for malignant degeneration.