[Esophageal carcinoma. Staging and necessary preoperative diagnosis]

The routine examination in esophageal carcinoma includes the following established recommendations: endoscopy with biopsy--X-ray of the esophagus--endosonography--cervico-thoraco-abdominal CT scan--bronchoscopy in tumors of the upper half of the esophagus. Diagnostic laparoscopy is gaining increasing importance, especially with regard to the distal adenocarcinoma of the esophagus. Other new diagnostic tools directly influencing clinical practice are magnetic resonance tomography, positron emission tomography and possibly the detection of circulating or bone marrow tumor cells.