TITLE:
Esophageal Carcinogenesis
AUTHORS:
Naoki Watanabe, Masahito Shimizu, Takahiro Kochi, Yohei Shirakami, Takuji Tanaka
KEYWORDS:
Esophageal Neoplasms, Preneoplastic Lesions, Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Adenocarcinoma, Risk Factor
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pathology,
Vol.4 No.4,
October
10,
2014
ABSTRACT: Esophageal
cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer death and remains one of the least
survivable cancers. Esophageal cancers show wide variations in incidence in
different population, suggesting that environmental or lifestyle risk factors
could be controlled to reduce risk of these diseases. There are two major histopathologic
types (squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma) of esophageal epithelial
malignancy. Recently, the rate of adenocarcinoma is increasing in developed
countries: in the United States, 50% or more is adenocarcinoma and, in about
70%, the increase especially in a white male serves as adenocarcinoma. Esophageal
adenocarcinoma develops in the lower esophagus. In contrast, in Japan, the
increase in adenocarcinoma is not clear and most (90%) of esophageal cancers
are squamous cell carcinoma. Such squamous cell carcinoma occurs onto the middle
part esophagus mostly, and 60% or more of the whole esophagus cancer also develops
in the middle and upper parts. These differences also influence the treatment
results. The scope of this article is to discuss carcinogenesis in the
esophagus by giving an overview about its histopathological characteristics and
molecular mechanisms.