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The justification for screening and surveillance of patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE) has been that BE is a premalignant condition that is associated with esophageal adenocarcinoma. Some study results suggest that endoscopic surveillance of BE patients improves staging and survival (Journal Watch Gastroenterology Jun 12 2002 ), and results from modeling studies suggest that BE screening and surveillance are as cost-effective as other cancer-screening programs (e.g., for breast cancer). However, to date, no population-based studies have documented overall and cause-specific mortality of patients with BE.
Researchers used a population-based registry to identify all incident cases of BE (columnar epithelium of the esophagus noted on the pa…