Benign Esophageal Tumors

Abstract

During endoscopy, various benign esophageal lesions are encountered in the esophagus. Most are asymptomatic and have no malignant potential. These various benign lesions can originate from different wall layers in the esophagus. According to its origin, esophageal tumors can be classified as epithelial and subepithelial tumors (SETs). Papilloma is the most common epithelial tumor in the esophagus and shows small, whitish-pink, wartlike exophytic projections on endoscopy. Although SETs originating from superficial side of the esophageal wall can present characteristic endoscopic findings such as yellowish, molar tooth-shaped appearance in granular cell tumor, the lesions originating from deep layer such as leiomyoma or gastrointestinal stromal tumor show similar morphology on endoscopy and even on endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS). Therefore, sometimes it is difficult to know the histological origin of the tumors endoscopically. In this chapter, endoscopic findings of various types of benign esophageal tumors will be discussed with examples.