Several studies #learn more randurls[1|1|,|CHEM1|]# have reported on the prevalence of adenocarcinoma in patients with Barrett’s esophagus and HGD. In older series, the risk of concomitant adenocarcinoma in patients with BE with HGD was as high as 40% (10). A study of 49 patients who underwent esophagectomy for HGD reported a cancer incidence of 36.7% (11). More recently, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical a meta analysis of 23 studies of patients who underwent esophagectomy for BE and HGD reported a 12.7% incidence of invasive adenocarcinoma (12). Thus, there has been a wide variation in the prevalence of adenocarcinoma in patients with

BE and HGD. One factor that may have contributed to this variation is the differentiation between intramucosal carcinoma and invasive adenocarcinoma.

The esophagus is unique in that intramucosal cancer does carry a small but definite 3-4% risk of nodal involvement, but the risk of nodal metastasis increases to 8 to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 33 % with invasive disease, defined as disease that invades into the submucosa (13). Due to the difference in risk for nodal metastasis, differentiation of intramucosal carcinoma from invasive cancer is clinically important. In the meta-analysis the overall prevalence of intramucosal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and invasive cancer, in a pooled average, from 23 studies was 39.9%. In the 14 studies that differentiated intramucosal carcinoma from invasive cancer, the prevalence of invasive

cancer was only 12.7% (12). The aim of our study Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical was to examine the prevalence of adenocarcinoma at esophagectomy among patients with a preoperative endoscopic diagnosis of high grade dysplasia undergoing surgical resection. Methods Patients were identified through our institution’s medical record data repository. This repository contains whole-text medical records and integrates information Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical from central transcription, laboratory, pharmacy, finance, administrative, and other departmental databases throughout the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center hospital system. When data are imported into the Rutecarpine medical archival record system (MARS), all terms are indexed so that they can be used for retrieval and cross correlation. Boolean searches can be executed based on the mention of any word or combination of words in admission notes, discharge summaries, radiology reports, and other documentation. To meet HIPAA guidelines and insure patient confidentiality, all data was de-identified using an honest broker system. This study met the criteria for exemption of informed consent by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board. We identified patients who underwent esophagectomy for high grade dysplasia in the setting of Barrett’s esophagus between January 1993 and June 2007.