journey14

The hope of having a gastroscopy every 2 years is to detect cancer at an earlier, curable stage, but there can be drawbacks to this approach.

Firstly, as discussed previously, most people with Barrett’s will not get oesophageal cancer.

Secondly, gastroscopy is not an easy procedure for people to go through. Some may find it particularly unpleasant.

Thirdly, there is debate amongst Doctors as to whether surveillance is really helping people.

To try and answer these questions, there is an ongoing study that some of you may be taking part in, called BOSS. In this study, some will have gastroscopy every 2 years and some will not.

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N.B. Since this talk was delivered, the guidelines have been amended and for those with short length metaplasia (<3 cm) the interval between scopes may be between 3 and 5 years.

You may download the latest guidelines from the TREATMENT/Guidelines page.