Staging of oesophageal carcinoma by endoscopic ultrasound: preliminary experience.
BACKGROUND
Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a relatively recent imaging modality that is capable of visualizing oesophageal tissue layers and para-oesophageal structures. Current pre-operative staging of oesophageal cancer is less than satisfactory, and a modality which may improve pre-operative staging, thus allowing a more rational approach to choice of treatment, may be a welcome addition to current techniques. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of EUS in the staging of oesophageal carcinoma in a consecutive cohort of patients.


METHODS
Forty-three patients with oesophageal cancer were prospectively staged with EUS using the radial scanning Olympus EUM-3 echo-endoscope. In the 28 patients who underwent surgery EUS staging was correlated with operative and histological findings to evaluate the EUS accuracy rate of assessing tumour depth (T stage), and the presence of nodal involvement (N stage) using internationally accepted TNM staging criteria.


RESULTS
Endoscopic ultrasound accuracy rates for overall T-staging was 61% whereas that of N-staging was 75%. The overall TNM pathological staging was 75% accurate by EUS.


CONCLUSIONS
Compared to published literature figures for oesophageal staging by computed tomography scanning (39-54%) these results demonstrate that EUS has a reasonable accuracy rate for staging. Endoscopic ultrasound may prove to be a useful additional modality in the management of oesophageal cancer.
Pham
T
T
Gastrointestinal Ultrasound Research Unit, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
Roach
E
E
Falk
G L
GL
Chu
J
J
Ngu
M C
MC
Jones
D B
DB
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019160:Endosonography; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011446:Prospective Studies