Screening for Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma: rationale, recent progress, challenges, and future directions.

ABSTRACT: As the incidence and mortality of esophageal adenocarcinoma continue to increase, strategies to counter this need to be explored. Screening for Barrett's esophagus, which is the known precursor of a large majority of adenocarcinomas, has been debated without a firm consensus. Given evidence for and against perceived benefits of screening, the multitude of challenges in the implementation of such a strategy and in the downstream management of subjects with Barrett's esophagus who could be diagnosed by screening, support for screening has been modest. Recent advances in the form of development and initial accuracy of noninvasive tools for screening, risk assessment tools, and biomarker panels to risk stratify subjects with BE, have spurred renewed interest in the early detection of Barrett's

SUBMITTER: Sami SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4254386 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature