Comparison Of Endoscopic Ultrasonography (EUS) And Computed Tomography (CT) In The Staging Of Esophageal Cancer

AimsEndoscopic ultrasonography and computed tomography are useful methods of pretreatment staging of esophageal cancer. This study aimed to compare the accuracy of EUS and CT in the staging of esophageal cancer.MethodsA total of 323 patients with esophageal cancer were enrolled and retrospectively reviewed for evaluation of preoperative EUS, CT and pathology. The accuracy of tumor depth (T) staging and regional lymph nodal (N) staging for both tests were compared with the postoperative histopathologic stage as the gold standard. Analyses were performed using the SPSS 16.0. χ2 test was used to compare the accuracy of EUS and CT staging. All tests of significance were two-tailed, and p values<0.05 denoted statistical significance.ResultsThe overall accuracy of EUS and CT for T staging are both 67.7%, without significant difference. However, its accuracy of N staging is lower than CT. The sensitivity of EUS for T3-4 staging is highest compared with the sensitivity of T1 and T2 staging. Although, EUS has better sensitivity for T1 and T2 staging, the sensitivity of CT for T3-4 staging is significantly higher than EUS. And the sensitivity of EUS and CT for NO staging are significantly higher than Nl-3 staging. What’s more, when EUS and CT are used together, the combined accuracy for T and N staging are both higher.ConclusionPretreatment EUS for the staging of esophageal cancer provides higher early T staging accuracy and lower N staging accuracy compared with CT. When EUS and CT are combined the diagnose accuracy are even higher. However, the total diagnose accuracy is still not satisfying, especially for the T2, N2 and N3 stage cancer and further study are needed.