The Role of Overdiagnosis and Reclassification in the Marked Increase of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Incidence

The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma is rising dramatically. This increase may reflect increased disease burden, reclassification of related cancers, or overdiagnosis resulting from increased diagnostic intensity, particularly upper endoscopy for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease or Barrett esophagus.

We used the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database to extract information on incidence, stage distribution, and disease-specific mortality for esophageal adenocarcinoma as well as information on related cancers.