Patients who underwent esophagectomy for BE with HGD were identified through their medical archival record system from 1993 until 2007. Inclusion criteria included a preoperative diagnosis of HGD confirmed by the pathologists at their institution. Patients were excluded if they had a preoperative diagnosis of low grade dysplasia or invasive adenocarcinoma or if they had other indications for esophagectomy. All available preoperative Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical endoscopy, surgical and radiology reports for each case was reviewed. Sixty-eight

patients who underwent esophagectomy with the preoperative diagnosis by endoscopic biopsy of HGD were identified in the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical time period. The post-operative surgical specimens revealed diagnosis of LGD in 2 patients (2.9%), HGD in 54 (79.4%), and esophageal adenocarcinoma in 12 (17.6%). Of the 12 patients who had cancer in the esophagectomy specimens, 4 patients had IMC (T1a), which was 5.9% of the total

cohort. The remaining 8 patients had invasive cancer (T1b or higher), which composed 11.7% of the total group. Four of the eight patients with invasive cancer had preoperative endoscopic or radiographic testing highly suggestive of advanced disease. The remaining four patients did not any reported endoscopic or radiographic findings that were suspicious Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of invasive disease and were considered occult. The authors also performed a time-based analysis to determine if there was a difference in prevalent disease in earlier versus later groups and did not find a significant difference. In a systematic review of the surgical literature, our group reported the rates of invasive cancer in patients undergoing esophagectomy for the prophylactic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical this website treatment of HGD among 23 studies (20). When applying strict definitions and standardized criteria, the pooled average of cases with esophageal adenocarcinoma

was 39.9% in the 441 patients who underwent an esophagectomy Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for HGD. Of the 23 studies, fourteen studies provided adequate information to differentiate cancer cases between those patients with IMC (T1a) and those with submucosal invasive disease (T1b or higher). Among these 213 patients, only 12.7% had submucosal invasive disease, while 87.3% had HGD or IMC (20). Wang et al. performed unless a similar retrospective study among patients at their institution who underwent esophagectomy for the treatment of HGD or IMC over a twenty year period (21). The overall rate of submucosal invasive carcinoma among sixty patients with either a preoperative diagnosis of HGD or IMC was 6.7% and a 5% rate of submucosal invasion specifically in the 41 patients with preoperative diagnosis of HGD. Esophagectomy may be curative, but carries a signification morbidity and mortality even in high volume centers (22),(23).