Pretreatment Dysphagia in Esophageal Cancer Patients May Eliminate the Need for Staging by Endoscopic Ultrasonography

The presence of dysphagia in patients with esophageal cancer was highly predictive of T3-4 disease by EUS. On the basis of this finding, approximately 50% of patients currently undergoing staging EUS at our institution could potentially forgo EUS before neoadjuvant therapy. Patients without dysphagia, however, should still undergo EUS.