Frontiers in Esophageal disease: lymph node metastatic patterns in esophageal cancer—first article in our new invited review series

In the current issue of Diseases of the Esophagus, we have the pleasure of publishing the first new series of premium-invited review articles. The series, which we have named Frontiers in Esophageal Disease, is intended to give our readership comprehensive reviews of the current most important areas of development or controversy in the esophageal world, written by the most important international opinion leaders. Our goal is that these articles will guide and inform our readership in the diverse and rapidly evolving field of esophagology. This first article in the series, ‘Lymph node metastatic patterns and the development of multidisciplinary treatment for esophageal cancer’,1 is written by Professor Yuko Kitagawa and his colleagues at Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. Professor Kitagawa’s group have pioneered research on lymph node metastatic patterns in esophageal cancer, first by exploring the sentinel node concept in gastric and esophageal cancer, and then by performing prospective studies mapping the patterns of lymph node metastasis in esophageal cancer of both histological subtypes.