Current status of endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of superficial Barrett's adenocarcinoma in Asia-Pacific region

The incidence of Barrett's adenocarcinoma has increased dramatically over the past few decades in most Western countries. While Barrett's esophagus is uncommon and adenocarcinoma is still rare in Asian populations, several Asian studies have indicated that the prevalence of esophageal adenocarcinoma is gradually increasing. Therefore, in order to determine the best way to treat superficial Barrett's adenocarcinoma, 12 expert endoscopists and a pathologist from the Asia-Pacific region conducted a session entitled 'The current status of endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of superficial Barrett's adenocarcinoma'. After three keynote lectures, three Japanese panels presented cases of superficial Barrett's adenocarcinomas diagnosed by image-enhanced endoscopy (IEE). We then confirmed the results of a questionnaire on the diagnosis and treatment of superficial Barrett's adenocarcinomas. Finally, a panel introduced an Asia-Pacific international study on simplified narrow-band imaging (NBI) classification of Barrett's esophagus and neoplasias. After a discussion, we proposed consensus statements on endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of superficial Barrett's adenocarcinoma as follows. Representative characteristics by conventional white light endoscopy are a reddish area or a lesion located on the anterior to right side wall. IEE may be useful for characterizing the tumor and diagnosing lateral tumor extension. Superficial Barrett's adenocarcinoma adjacent to the squamocolumnar junction is sometimes associated with subsquamous tumor extension. IEE may be useful to detect the subsquamous tumor extension especially when using NBI or an acetic acid-spraying method. Endoscopic mucosal resection or endoscopic submucosal dissection for mucosal carcinomas could provide excellent prognosis.