title: Staging in oesophageal cancer.
abstract: Accurate staging defines groups for stage-specific treatment, minimising inappropriate treatment. Application of dedicated staging methods - including 16-64 multidetector computed tomography (CT), endoscopic ultrasonography with fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) and positron emission tomography (PET) - results in better staging of oesophageal cancer. PET as a metabolic imaging technique that is usually applied after (or recently in combination with) CT (PET/CT) improves the accuracy of non-invasive staging, especially in locally advanced oesophageal cancer patients. Whether EUS-FNA or PET/CT should be performed as a first diagnostic step is still a matter of debate. Fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) PET is also promising tool in assessing neoadjuvant treatment response. Application of these dedicated staging methods has a learning curve, suggesting a prominent role for centralisation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology and Abdominal Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. j.th.plukker@chir.umcg.nl
authors.forename: J Th M
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Plukker
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: van Westreenen
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary; D019160:Endosonography; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D004945:Esophagoscopy; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18