Understanding Compliance, Practice Patterns, and Barriers Among Gastroenterologists and Primary Care Providers Is Crucial for Developing Strategies to Improve Screening for Barrett’s Esophagus
Jennifer M. Kolb, Mindy Chen, Anna Tavakkoli, Amit G. Singal, Ravy K. Vajravelu, Sachin Wani, Camille J. Hochheimer, Wyatt Tarter, Jazmyne Gallegos, Jack O’Hara, Shalika Devireddy, Bryan Golubski, Kenneth J. Chang, Jason Samarasena, Frank I. Scott, Gary W. Falk
Abstract
Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is a highly fatal disease with an increasing incidence from 0.54 to 3.76 per 100,000 person-years from 1975 to 20161 that has been mirrored by a rise in EAC-related mortality. Because Barrett’s esophagus (BE) is the only known precursor lesion to EAC, early recognition and intervention could potentially reduce the societal burden of EAC by detecting cancers at an earlier stage and improving outcomes. Accordingly, professional gastroenterology society guidelines recommend screening upper endoscopy for at-risk individuals (chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease [GERD] along with the presence of other risk factors such as age >50 years, male sex, White race, smoking, obesity, and family history of BE or EAC).