Endoscopic options for early stage esophageal cancer

Surgery has traditionally been the preferred treatment for early stage esophageal cancer. Recent advances in endoscopic treatments have been shown to be effective and safe. Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) allow endoscopists to remove small, superficial lesions, providing tumor specimen that can be examined for accurate pathologic tumor staging and assessment of adequacy of resection. Endoscopic ablation procedures, including photodynamic therapy (PDT) and radio frequency ablation (RFA), have also been shown to safely and effectively treat esophageal dysplasia and early stage neoplasia, with excellent long-term disease control. Both approaches are becoming more widely available around the world, and provide an alternative, safe, low risk strategy for treating early stage disease, making combined endoscopic therapy the recommended treatment of choice for early stage esophageal cancers.