Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Risk of malignant progression in patients with Barrett's oesophagus: a Dutch nationwide cohort study
  1. Pieter J F de Jonge1,
  2. Mark van Blankenstein1,
  3. Caspar W N Looman2,
  4. Mariël K Casparie3,
  5. Gerrit A Meijer4,
  6. Ernst J Kuipers1,5
  1. 1Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  2. 2Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  3. 3Stichting PALGA, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  4. 4Department of Pathology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  5. 5Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to P J F de Jonge, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology & Department of Internal Medicine Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, ‘s-Gravendijkwal’ 230, 3015 CE Rotterdam, The Netherlands; p.dejonge{at}erasmusmc.nl

Abstract

Background Reported incidence rates of oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) in Barrett's oesophagus (BO) vary widely. As the effectiveness of BO surveillance is crucially dependent on this rate, its clarification is essential.

Methods To estimate the rate of malignant progression in patients with BO, all patients with a first diagnosis of BO with no dysplasia (ND) or low-grade dysplasia (LGD) between 1991 and 2006 were identified in the Dutch nationwide registry of histopathology (PALGA). Follow-up data were evaluated up to November 2007.

Results 42 207 patients with BO were included; 4132 (8%) of them had LGD. Re-evaluation endoscopies at least 6 months after initial diagnosis were performed in 16 365 patients (39%), who were significantly younger than those not re-examined (58±13 vs 63±16 years, p<0.001). These patients were followed-up for a total of 78 131 person-years, during which 666 (4%) high-grade dysplasia (HGD)/OACs occurred, affecting 4% of the surveillance patient population (mean age: 69±12 years, 76% male). After excluding HGD/OAC cases detected within 1 year after BO diagnosis (n=212, 32%), incidence rates per 1000 person-years were 4.3 (95% CI 3.4 to 5.5) for OAC and 5.8 (95% CI 4.6 to 7.0) for HGD/OAC combined. Risk factors for HGD/OAC were increased age (eg, >75 years HR 12; 95% CI 8.0 to 18), male sex (2.01; 1.68 to 2.60) and presence of LGD at baseline (1.91; 1.53 to 2.40).

Conclusion In this largest reported cohort of unselected patients with BO, the annual risk of OAC was 0.4%. Male sex, older age and LGD at diagnosis are independent predictors of malignant progression, and should enable an improved risk assessment in BO.

  • Barrett's carcinoma
  • Barrett's oesophagus
  • epidemiology

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests GAM is a member of the executive board of the PALGA registry. The other authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.

  • Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of the Stichting PALGA.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

Linked Articles

  • Digest
    Emad El-Omar Severine Vermeire Alexander Gerbes