The pattern of invasion of early carcinomas in Barrett's esophagus is dependent on the depth of infiltration

Sixteen‐year follow‐up of Barrett's esophagus, endoscopically treated with argon plasma coagulation

“…8 All of these methods ablate tissue without the benefit of histological specimen retrieval. [9][10][11][12][13] Their aim is to destroy the metaplastic/ dysplastic epithelium, which will then be replaced, in non-acid environments, by squamous epithelium. 14 The interest in ablation techniques was revived by the development of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) devices.…”

Red flag imaging in Barrett's esophagus: Does it help to find the needle in the haystack?

“…The rationale of these therapies resides in the risk of lymph node metastases when there is submucosal invasion. High grade dysplasia (HGD) and intramucosal carcinoma (IMC) are amenable for endoscopic treatment given the low risk of lymphatic spread in these stages, which increases substantially when submucosal invasion is present, from less than 5% for IMC to up to a 20% of risk of nodal involvement in submucosal cancer (11,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) and thus a surgical and/or systemic approach is required. Endoscopic therapy has emerged in this context as a minimally invasive approach for treatment of HGD or IMC as an alternative to oesophagectomy, which is associated with significant mortality and morbidity (19,20) Given the importance of early detection of neoplasia and its clinical impact on management, several endoscopic imaging techniques have been developed and tested in order to improve the accuracy of endoscopic diagnosis (Table 1).…”

Endoscopic diagnosis and therapies for Barrett esophagus: a review

“…In this stage, the risk of lymph node involvement is lower than 5 % (83-86). on the other hand, submucosal involvement increases the risk of nodal metastases (20 %) and thus a surgical and/or systemic approach is required (83,84,87,88).…”