The incidence of Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma is increasing in Western countries. The outcome for patients with oesophageal cancer is extremely poor with only 15.1% of patients surviving for 5 years. The dismal outcome is largely due to late diagnosis which eliminates many patients from effective treatment.Oesophageal adenocarcinoma is often preceded by the development of dysplasia in a segment of Barrett's oesophagus. With the current surveillance strategies, it is extremely difficult to not only visualise areas of dysplasia, but also to accurately identify their morphological and architectural changes during histopathological diagnosis. Consensus statements recommend mucosal resection for dysplastic change in the oesophagus, thereby, preventing the development of adenocarcinoma. This strategy requires improved diagnostic tools that can reliably distinguish patients with dysplasia.Years of research have looked at a variety of different modalities that may aid with the current dilemma of difficulties in diagnosing dysplasia. This review looks at the modalities under development and analyses their advantages and the part they may well play in the future. It also looks at the future avenues that could be explored to aid in the understanding of the disease and to improve the outcomes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.