Promising Biomarker Discovered for Esophageal Cancer

A new biomarker for esophageal cancer shows promise in improving screening for this deadly disease and its precursor, Barrett's esophagus.

Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a leading predictor of esophageal cancer and compared with the general population, patients with BE have an 11-fold higher risk of developing adenocarcinoma of the esophagus.

Scientists at Case Western Reserve University Hospital (Cleveland, OH, USA) examined if a new, non-endoscopic "brushing" of the esophagus is as effective as the more invasive, traditional biopsy. The team based their study on aberrant vimentin methylation, a highly common epigenetic alteration in neoplasia of the upper gastrointestinal tract. They analyzed esophageal specimens in patients with BE, esophageal cancer as well as control subjects. The data determined that methylated vimentin is a highly sensitive biomarker for Barrett's esophagus and that the less invasive brushing technique can effectively detect these changes in the DNA.

Amitabh Chak, MD, who presented the findings, said, “Despite the fact that the rates of common cancers have declined in recent years, esophageal cancer has a poor five-year survival rate of less than 15%. Early detection through screening can prevent the development of esophageal cancer. This promising new test has important clinical implications through its potential to improve screening and decrease mortality from this deadly disease. This is true translational research, bringing a discovery from the laboratory to the patient care setting. This new technique to sensitively detect changes in the DNA may have significant implication for the clinical practice of screening and primary prevention of esophageal cancer.”

Sanford Markowitz, MD, an oncologist at Case Western Reserve University Hospital, said, “Our team's hope is that the use of molecular markers for non-endoscopic screening will drive down the cost and increase the ease of screening for these early esophageal lesions that can give rise to cancer. Longer term we hope to find additional markers that will allow the same approach to be used in the monitoring of Barrett's patients to detect early progression to more advanced disease.” Barrett's esophagus affects up to 6.8% of the population. The study was presented at the Digestive Disease Week (DDW) Annual Meeting held May 3–6, 2014, in Chicago (IL, USA).

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