Feng W, Zhang P, Zheng X, Chen M, Mao WM. Incidence and treatment of brain metastasis in patients with esophageal carcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2015; 21(19): 5805-5812 [PMID: 26019444 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i19.5805]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Wei Feng, MD, Department of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment Technology on Thoracic Oncology (Lung and Esophagus), Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, No. 38 Guangji Road, Hangzhou 310022, Zhejiang Province, China. fengweibrian@126.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. May 21, 2015; 21(19): 5805-5812 Published online May 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i19.5805
Incidence and treatment of brain metastasis in patients with esophageal carcinoma
Wei Feng, Peng Zhang, Xiao Zheng, Ming Chen, Wei-Min Mao
Wei Feng, Peng Zhang, Xiao Zheng, Ming Chen, Wei-Min Mao, Department of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment Technology on Thoracic Oncology (Lung and Esophagus), Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou 310022, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Feng W, Zhang P and Zheng X contributed equally to this work; Feng W, Zhang P, Zheng X, Chen M, and Mao WM designed the study and wrote the paper; Feng W and Zhang P performed the research; and Zheng X and Chen M contributed new reagents/analytic tools.
Supported by Zhejiang Province Science and Technology Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 2011ZB017; and the Talent Project of Medical and Health Sciences Fund of Zhejiang Province, No. 2012RCB005.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no interests conflicting with this work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Wei Feng, MD, Department of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment Technology on Thoracic Oncology (Lung and Esophagus), Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, No. 38 Guangji Road, Hangzhou 310022, Zhejiang Province, China. fengweibrian@126.com
Telephone: +86-571-88122506 Fax: +86-571-88122506
Received: January 7, 2015 Peer-review started: January 8, 2015 First decision: January 22, 2015 Revised: February 28, 2015 Accepted: March 31, 2015 Article in press: March 31, 2015 Published online: May 21, 2015 Processing time: 132 Days and 22.4 Hours
Abstract
Brain metastasis from esophageal carcinoma (BMEC) is very rare, but its incidence has increased in the United States, Japan, China and other counties. Reports on BMEC have largely been focused on examining whether adjuvant therapy for esophageal cancer influences the survival duration of BMEC patients and on the imaging characteristics of BMEC determined using new medical equipment. The difference between different pathological types of esophageal cancer, especially adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, is one important factor used to assess the influence of BMEC. Adjuvant therapy, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy, for esophageal cancer with different characteristics in different countries may affect BMEC treatment outcomes. The degree of popularization of advanced medical equipment is a major concern related to the prevalence of BMEC. Furthermore, targeted BMEC treatment is under development in developed countries. In this article, we reviewed the debate surrounding BMEC and analyzed BMEC studies from different perspectives.
Core tip: The incidence of brain metastasis from esophageal carcinoma (BMEC) is extremely low but has increased in recent years. The relevant reports on this unique disease have primarily focused on issues such as whether the auxiliary treatment of esophageal cancer promotes BMEC, the correlation of survival duration with different treatment methods, and imaging characteristics determined using various imaging approaches. We reviewed the different perspectives of BMEC and compared BMEC studies performed in different countries.
