Rapid endoscopic identification and destruction of degenerating Barrett's mucosal neoplasia.

There are distinct challenges implicit to the development of minimally invasive endoscopic surgery for the eradication of early neoplasia in Barrett's oesophagus. Endoscopic resection and ablation of high-grade dysplasia and mucosal cancer offer alternative therapeutic options to those unsuitable or unwilling to contemplate radical surgical excision. It may also become the treatment of choice in the future. Technological developments enable the instantaneous and non-invasive diagnosis of microscopic tissue abnormalities in vivo. This is made possible by improving the level of information that can be obtained from the tissue. As well as the two-dimensional surface morphology image, which the traditional endoscope can view, we have used new techniques to enable structure at depth, using Optical Coherence Tomography, to be imaged in high resolution. Other advances, using Raman spectroscopy, enable the early endoscopic detection of biochemical and molecular changes in tissue that precede any changes in morphology, thus enabling earlier diagnosis of tissue abnormalities. This King James IV lecture details our recent work, to develop advanced imaging for the diagnosis of malignancy and pre-malignancy. After detection endoscopic photodynamic therapy and endoscopic mucosal resection can provide eradication of mucosal neoplasia. Following photodynamic therapy there was complete eradication of all high-grade dysplasia and intramucosal carcinoma in 40 of 42 patients with a maximum endoscopic follow-up period of 72 months. Following endoscopic resection of 95 patients, the mean survival for intramucosal adenocarcinoma and high-grade dysplasia was 40.6 and 60.8 months respectively.