Introduction

Abstract

The following 12 gastric, 7 colorectal, and 5 esophageal cases are part of the material used in previous studies [1]–[4]. In total, 76 histological specimens of mostly early neoplastic lesions were circulated to and individually reviewed by 31 well-known pathologists from 12 countries a few months before the “Vienna meeting,” which was held on 5 and 6 September, 1998, and led to the Vienna classification of gastrointestinal epithelial neoplasia [1]. In Tables 1–24, the results of the assessments by these 31 pathologists are shown for 41 of the 76 specimens.These 41 specimens were taken from lesions in 23 Japanese patients, of which the endoscopic gross appearances are indicated by I, IIa, IIb, IIc, IIa+IIc or IIc+IIa according to the macroscopic classification of early neoplasia of the digestive tract [5].