Ultrasound Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ultrasound, including details on screening, diagnosis, pregnancy, detection.

Role of endoscopic ultrasound in staging upper gastrointestinal cancers.

Jones DB

Department of Gastroenterology, Concord Hospital, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. dbjones@ozemail.com.au

The key clinical management points in this article are that (i) endoscopic ultrasound is the most accurate imaging method for local staging of oesophageal, gastric and pancreatic neoplasms; (ii) addition of fine-needle aspiration biopsy to the technique is safe and well tolerated and increases diagnostic accuracy for nodal staging purposes; and (iii) endoscopic ultrasound +/- fine-needle aspiration has the capacity to influence significantly, the management of patients with malignancies of the upper gastrointestinal tract, particularly with respect to selection for surgery. The learning objectives were that at the end of this paper the reader should be able to (i) understand the usefulness and limitations of various imaging methods in the staging of upper gastrointestinal cancers; and (ii) incorporate the various imaging methods, particularly endoscopic ultrasound, into management algorithms for oesophageal cancer, gastric cancer, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphomas, gastrointestinal stromal tumours, pancreatic cystic lesions and pancreatic cancer.

Published 19 February 2007 in ANZ J Surg, 77(3): 166-72.
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