Effect of Tumor Characteristics and Duplication of the Muscularis Mucosae on the Endoscopic Staging of Superficial Barrett Esophagus-related Neoplasia

Abstract

Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) is being advocated as a diagnostic, staging, and therapeutic technique for the management of Barrett esophagus (BE)-related neoplasia. With the emergence of new endoluminal therapy including EMR for the treatment of BE-related superficial adenocarcinomas, accurate staging has become crucial to select patients for different treatment arms. Intramucosal adenocarcinomas can be successfully treated by endoluminal techniques, whereas submucosal invasive tumors with a greater risk of lymph node metastasis are likely candidates for esophagectomy. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is used to stage superficial BE-related neoplasms, yet endoscopic staging can be incongruent to that obtained after pathologic examination. In this study, we sought to determine morphologic factors, which may influence EUS staging in 35 cases with intramucosal adenocarcinoma diagnosed by subsequent EMR, focusing on tumor characteristics and structural changes associated with BE. Among the latter duplication of the muscularis mucosae, either fragmented or well-organized, was seen in 64% of 11 cases that were overstaged as having submucosal invasion by EUS, compared with 38% of those accurately staged. A greater vertical thickness of the tumor was also associated with overstaging by EUS (1.61+/-0.75 mm in the discordant vs. 1.16+/-0.67 mm in the concordant groups, P=0.028). The results illustrate how morphologic factors may affect EUS staging of superficial esophageal adenocarcinomas. EUS alone is not sufficient for staging these neoplasms precisely, and to accurately stratify patients into different treatment arms, EMR should play a role as a complementary staging modality.