Published online May 7, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i17.5074
Revised: January 21, 2014
Accepted: March 5, 2014
Published online: May 7, 2014
AIM: To explore whether routine biopsies at the high incidence spot of esophagogastric junction (EGJ) cancer are justified in endoscopic screening.
METHODS: This was a multicenter population-based study conducted in eight high-risk areas in China. A total of 37396 participants underwent endoscopic examination. Biopsies were obtained from visible mucosal abnormalities or from normal-appearing mucosa at the high incidence spot of esophagogastric junction cancer when no abnormality was detected. Specimens showing high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HIN) or higher grade lesions were deemed as pathologically “positive”. The ratios of positive pathologic diagnosis between participants with abnormal and normal-appearing mucosa were compared using the Pearson χ2 test. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals, adjusted for potential confounders, were calculated using logistic regression.
RESULTS: A total of 37520 individuals participated in this study and 37396 (99.7%) participants had full information and were suitable for analysis. During endoscopic examinations, 9.11% (3405/37396) participants were found to have visible mucosal lesions. Of the participants who had normal-appearing mucosa at the EGJ, only 0.28% (94/33991) were diagnosed with HIN or higher grade lesions, whereas 6.05% (206/3405) of participants with abnormalities at the EGJ had a positive pathologic result. After controlling for other variables, visible abnormal mucosa detected under endoscopy strongly predicted a positive pathologic result (OR = 32.51, 95%CI: 23.96-44.09). The proportion of participants with “positive” pathologic diagnoses increased as the total number of endoscopic examinations performed by the doctors increased (< 5000 cases vs 5000-10000 cases vs > 10000 cases, Z = -2.7207, P = 0.0065, Cochran Armiger trend test). The same trend was found between the proportion of participants with positive pathologic diagnoses and the total number of years the doctors performed endoscopy (< 5 years vs 5-10 years vs > 10 years, Z = -10.3222, P < 0.001, Cochran Armiger trend test).
CONCLUSION: Additional routine biopsies from the high incidence spot of EGJ cancer are of limited value and are unjustified.
Core tip: Our findings offer population-level evidence for the high incidence spot of esophagogastric junction (EGJ) cancer. It is also the first study to evaluate whether the findings at the high incidence spot could be used in endoscopic screening in high-risk populations to increase the detection rate. We found that visible mucosal abnormalities of the EGJ at endoscopy were strongly associated with pathologic diagnoses of high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia or higher grade lesions. When no abnormalities were detected, routine biopsies from normal-appearing mucosa at the high incidence spot in endoscopic screening were unjustified in high-risk populations.