Risk of Late Postoperative Recurrence of Crohn's Disease in Patients in Endoscopic Remission After Ileocecal Resection, Over 10 Years at Multiple Centers.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The risk of recurrence of Crohn's disease (CD) from 1 to 10 years after surgery despite initial endoscopic remission (late post-operative recurrence) is not clear. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study, at 3 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) centers in France and Belgium, of all patients with CD (n = 86) undergoing an ileocecal resection with curative intent from 2006 through 2016 who did not have endoscopic evidence for recurrence (Rutgeerts score less than i2) at their baseline assessment. Postoperative recurrence after baseline endoscopy was defined as a composite endpoint of at least 1 of the following: clinical recurrence, IBD-related hospitalization, occurrence of bowel damage, need for endoscopic balloon dilatation of the anastomosis, and need to repeat the surgery. Risk of mucosal disease progression was studied as a secondary outcome. RESULTS: The median time between surgery and baseline endoscopy was 7 months (IQR, 5.7-9.5 months); 40 patients (46.5%) received medical prophylaxis in this period. The median follow-up time was 3.5 years (IQR, 1.6-5.3 years). Thirty-five patients (40.7%) had a late post-operative recurrence of CD, with a median time to disease recurrence after baseline endoscopy of 14.2 months (IQR, 6.3-26.1 months). Recurrence status did not differ significantly between patients with Rutgeerts scores of i0 (20/55) or i1 (15/31) at baseline (P = .28) and was independent of medical prophylaxis (16/40 with prophylactic therapy vs 19/46 without prophylactic therapy; P = .90). Mucosal disease progressed in 29 of the 71 patients (40.8%) with available data. We did not identify risk factors for late post-operative recurrence of CD or mucosal disease progression. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with CD treated by ileocecal resection, 40% of patients had a late recurrence, despite initial endoscopic remission, after a median follow-up time of 3.5 years. Tight monitoring of these patients is recommended beyond 18 months.

Can the depth of invasion of early esophageal cancer be predicted based on endoscopic evidence?

INTRODUCTION: Esophageal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Its poor prognosis is related to an often late diagnosis. An earlier diagnosis and treatment however, is related to a better outcome. Early stage esophageal cancer can be diagnosed and treated endoscopically with minimally invasive techniques, which is associated with lower mortality and morbidity than surgery. Whether esophageal carcinoma can be treated endoscopically depends mainly on the risk of lymph node metastasis, which itself correlates to the invasion depth of the tumor. The question is whether endoscopy can accurately determine the invasion depth and thus the treatment modality. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Articles used for this review were identified by searches of PubMed and references of relevant articles. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Lesion morphology has some predictive value for the depth of invasion for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). An intramucosal cancer generally has a flat appearance (Paris 0-IIa, 0-IIb,). By contrast, a submucosally invasive cancer often has an excavated (0-IIc, 0-III) and sometimes a polypoid morphology (0-I). In SCC, classification of surface vessels and intrapapillary capillary loops (IPCLs) allows accurate assessment of invasion depth. Generally, mucosal lesions are an indication for endoscopic treatment. However recent studies have shown that tumors with submucosal infiltration and low risk profile for metastasis can also be treated safely by endoscopic resection. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic assessment allows a rather accurate estimation of invasion depth of early esophageal cancer. To determine the final treatment modality however the final histological staging obtained by endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) or endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is crucial.

Review: Surveillance of patients with Barrett oesophagus.

There has been a rapid increase in the incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma in most Western countries over the past thirty years. Barrett's oesophagus (BE) is a common premalignant lesion of oesophageal adenocarcinoma, although the risk of developing cancer in BE remains low. Therefore, screening is not recommended in the general population. Surveillance of BE is recommended to detect high grade dysplasia or carcinoma in an early stage, although there is no clear evidence that surveillance leads to a reduced mortality. This review discusses the several screening and surveillance techniques, including chromoendoscopy, narrow band imaging, autofluorescence imaging and confocal laser endomicroscopy, pointing out the areas that are well established as well as the new techniques that require more research.