title: Role of molecular biology in the follow-up of patients who have Barrett's esophagus.
abstract: At present, the follow-up of patients who have Barrett's esophagus (BE) should occur within the setting of an endoscopic biopsy surveillance program and with the frequency of surveillance as proposed by the American College of Gastroenterology. In the future, patients who have BE will be further stratified according to their risk for progression to invasive carcinoma. This stratification will permit the development of more rational surveillance programs. Models that incorporate epidemiologic risk factors, reflux symptoms, and endoscopic and histologic findings will likely include panels of biomarkers for further stratification of patients as low, intermediate, or high risk. Therefore, the challenge over the next decade will be to define the role of molecular markers in endoscopic surveillance strategies and to identify additional clinically relevant molecular markers for prognosis as intermediate markers for chemoprevention and as molecular targets for novel gene therapies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Dalhousie University, QE II Health Science Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. alan.casson@dal.ca
authors.forename: Alan G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Casson
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000517:prevention & control; D001471:Barrett Esophagus / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D001685:Biological Factors; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000517:prevention & control; D004947:Esophagus / Q000473:pathology*; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor / Q000502:physiology; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008679:Metaplasia; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000502:physiology; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D001685:Biological Factors