The indications for endoscopic resection of esophageal submucosal tumor

摘要

To the Editor: We read with interest the article by Shi et al regarding endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for treatment of esophageal submucosal tumors (SMT). Thirty esophageal SMTs from the muscularis propria were resected by use of ESD with excellent results in terms of en bloc resection rate, and there were no cases of recurrence.First, we ask what the indications of esophageal SMT resection were in this study. Malignant nonepithelial tumors of the esophagus are extremely rare. Resection of the mass should be considered in symptomatic patients, those in whom diagnosis is uncertain, and those in whom the lesion shows interval growth during surveillance endos-copy. However, Shi et al did not indicate whether patients were symptomatic or whether there was interval tumor growth.