Winning the battle against Barrett esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Abstract

Esophageal adenocarcinoma is a highly aggressive cancer that is usually caught too late to avoid severe morbidity and death. Traditional endoscopic screening for adenocarcinoma's precursor-Barrett esophagus-and subsequent surveillance are often ineffective for detecting early cancer, which can often be treated without esophagectomy. Current efforts are focused on better identifying patients at high risk as candidates for endoscopic screening and developing less invasive and cheaper detection methods to enable widespread screening in the primary care setting.