Access the Top 10 most highly cited articles from Diseases of the Esophagus - now freely available to read online until the end of 2022.

The recurrence rate after curative resection of esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) is high even for node-negative patients and the prognostic factors for patients with node-negative ESCC, remains unidentified. In this single- institution retrospective study, 103 patients with pT1b-3N0 ESCC (node negative) who underwent upfront surgery were compared to 51 node-positive ESCC patients with Stage IIIA or less (node positive) who had undergone upfront surgery in regards to overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). Results show that only lymphatic invasion (Ly+) was associated with worse 3-year OS (hazard ratio, 8.63; 95% confidence interval, 2.09–35.69; P = 0.0029) and RFS (hazard ratio, 4.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.69–14.02; P = 0.0034) on univariate and multivariate analysis with the node negative /Ly+ group showing worse OS and RFS compared to the node positive/Ly+ group who underwent chemotherapy. The authors concluded that Ly+ is the only independent prognostic factor in patients with node-negative ESCC, and patients with node-negative/Ly+ ESCC may benefit from adjuvant treatment.

There is growing interest in the utility of biomarkers identified in saliva as surrogates of physiologic health of the body especially in esophageal disorders which often require invasive costly testing such as endoscopy and pH testing for diagnosis. Saliva is easily collected and more economically practical than blood as a fluid to detect and monitor disease. This review explores the role of salivary pepsin, bile, epidermal growth factor in GERD as well as miRNA and the microbiome in eosinophilic esophagitis and esophageal cancer.