Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Methods and Protocols

5

4 Prognosis

Esophageal is the sixth most common cause of cancer death world-

wide. The prognosis for patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma

has slightly improved in the last few decades. However, the prog-

nosis of the patients with cancer remains poor. As a whole, the

5-year survival rate of patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma is

approximately 20% [ 3 ].

There are many factors contributed to the high mortality and

morbidity of the patents with esophageal adenocarcinoma. There is

no cost-effective screening program for esophageal adenocarci-

noma. No biological marker could precisely predict the progression

of Barrett esophagus to esophageal adenocarcinoma. Many patients

with esophageal adenocarcinoma presented late and would require

a combination of different modalities of treatment. At present, only

one target therapy (Anti-HER2) is available in the market for the

management of advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma.

The most likely opportunity for improving the outcome of

patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma is adoption of multidis-

Fig. 4 Adenocarcinoma of the middle portion of the esophagus

Updates of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma