Clinical characteristics of young patients with early Barrett’s neoplasia

BACKGROUND: Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and high-grade dysplasia (HGD) may appear in young patients with Barrett’s esophagus (BE). However, characteristics of Barrett’s-related neoplasia in this younger population remain unknown. AIM: To identify clinical characteristics that differ between young and old patients with early-stage Barrett’s-related neoplasia. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database comprised of consecutive patients with early-stage EAC (pT1) and HGD at a tertiary-referral center between 2001 and 2017. Baseline characteristics, drug and risk factor exposures, clinicopathological staging of EAC/HGD and treatment outcomes [complete eradication of neoplasia (CE-N), complete eradication of intestinal metaplasia (CE-IM), recurrence of neoplasia and recurrence of intestinal metaplasia] were retrieved. Multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors that differed significantly between older and younger (≤ 50 years) patients. RESULTS: We identified 450 patients with T1 EAC and HGD (74% and 26%, respectively); 45 (10%) were ≤ 50 years. Compared to the older group, young patients were more likely to present with ongoing gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms (55% vs 38%, P = 0.04) and to be obese (body mass index > 30, 48% vs 32%, P = 0.04). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that young patients were significantly more likely to have ongoing GERD symptoms [odds ratio (OR) 2.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-3.85, P = 0.04] and to be obese (OR 2.06, 95%CI 1.07-3.98, P = 0.03) whereas the young group was less likely to have a smoking history (OR 0.39, 95%CI 0.20-0.75, P < 0.01) compared to the old group. However, there were no significant differences regarding tumor histology, CE-N, CE-IM, recurrence of neoplasia and recurrence of intestinal metaplasia (mean follow-up, 44.3 mo). CONCLUSION: While guidelines recommend BE screening in patients > 50 years of age, younger patients should be considered for screening endoscopy if they suffer from obesity and GERD symptoms.