Several studies assess the correlation between tumor infiltration and prevalence of lymph node metastasis (34-47). In case of high grade intraepithelial neoplasia (high grade dysplasia not beyond the basal membrane) the risk of lymph node metastasis is absent. For T1a tumors (not beyond muscularis mucosae) the reported rates of lymphatic involvement are <1%. Tumors invading the submucosal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical layer (T1b) had a prevalence of lymph node metastasis between 20% and 30%. Our study shows that patients with neoplasia

invading the submucosal layer in final staging are not more likely to have findings suspicious for invasion in the EUS exam; only 50% of patients with ≥ Tb tumors Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical had a previous suspicion for invasion on EUS. The presence of malignant lymph nodes and/or submucosal invasion radically changes the therapeutic approach of early Barrett’s neoplasia. Therefore, in this study, all EUS exams were considered to have findings suspicious for invasion based on the presence of these two conditions (EUS stage ≥T1bNxMx and/or thickening of the esophageal wall involving the submucosal layer and/or presence of suspicious lymph nodes). Up to 82.5% of the EUS exams were considered as findings not suspicious for invasion according to the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical aforementioned criteria. Of all 19 (17.5%) patients with EUS findings suspicious for invasion, only

3 (15.8%) had submucosal involvement on the final Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical pathology. The remaining 84.2% had neoplasia limited to the mucosal layer (≤T1a) that could be successfully treated with endoscopic approaches. Despite 17% of patients with findings suspicious for invasion in the EUS exam, its clinical impact in the treatment algorithm of early Barrett’s neoplasia is negligible. 84% of them had no evidence of invasion and should be considered

as false positives; the true positive rate of findings suspicious for invasion on EUS was as low as 16%. Thus, even in patients with early Barrett’s neoplasia and findings suspicious for invasion, EUS did not provide Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical any additional information for making decision of treatment for patients at this center. Surveillance endoscopy with high-resolution endoscopy (HRE) is the most effective tool to detect premalignant and malignant lesions found of the GI tract in an early stage. In Barrett’s patients, the endoscopic appearance of any superficial lesion according to the Paris Classification (9,48), helps to predict the presence of submucosal invasion, that is clearly related with the risk of nodal metastasis (49). Two prospective studies did not demonstrate statistically significant differences between EUS and HRE for staging of early AZD6244 chemical structure gastric (50) and early esophageal cancer (22), but in Tsm1 tumors the reported accuracy of both techniques is yet far to be satisfactory and up to 40% of cases with submucosal infiltration were not identified with combination of HRE and EUS (22).