Real-world evidence of safety and effectiveness of Barrett's endoscopic therapy

Real-world data on the adverse events and the survival benefit of Barrett's endoscopic therapy (BET) are limited. The aim of this study was to examine the safety and effectiveness (survival benefit) of BET in patients with neoplastic Barrett's esophagus (BE).

An electronic health record-based database (TriNetX) was used to select patients with BE with dysplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) from 2016 to 2020. Primary outcome was 3-year mortality among patients with high-grade dysplasia (HGD) or EAC who underwent BET versus 2 comparison cohorts: patients with HGD or EAC who had not undergone BET and patients with GERD but no BE/EAC. Secondary outcome was adverse events (esophageal perforation, upper GI bleeding, chest pain, and esophageal stricture) after BET. To control for confounding variables, 1:1 propensity score matching was performed.

We identified 27,556 patients with BE and dysplasia, of whom 5295 underwent BET. After propensity score matching, patients with HGD and EAC who underwent BET had significantly lower 3-year mortality (HGD risk ratio [RR], .59; 95% CI, .49-.71; EAC RR, .53; 95% CI, .44-.65) compared with corresponding cohorts who did not undergo BET (P < .001). There was no difference in median 3-year mortality between control subjects (GERD without BE/EAC) compared with patients with HGD (RR, 1.04; 95% CI, .84-1.27) who underwent BET. Finally, there was no difference in median 3-year mortality between patients who underwent BET compared with patients who underwent esophagectomy among both HGD (RR, .67; 95% CI, .39-1.14; P =.14) and EAC (RR, .73; 95% CI, .47-1.13; P = .14). Esophageal stricture was the most common adverse event (6.5%) after BET.

Real-world, population-based evidence from this large database shows that endoscopic therapy is safe and effective for patients with BE. Endoscopic therapy is associated with a significantly lower 3-year mortality; however, it leads to esophageal strictures in 6.5% of treated patients.