title: Early diagnostic biomarkers for esophageal adenocarcinoma--the current state of play.
abstract: Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is one of the two most common types of esophageal cancer with alarming increase in incidence and very poor prognosis. Aiming to detect EAC early, currently high-risk patients are monitored using an endoscopic-biopsy approach. However, this approach is prone to sampling error and interobserver variability. Diagnostic tissue biomarkers related to genomic and cell-cycle abnormalities have shown promising results, although with current technology these tests are difficult to implement in the screening of high-risk patients for early neoplastic changes. Differential miRNA profiles and aberrant protein glycosylation in tissue samples have been reported to improve performance of existing tissue-based diagnostic biomarkers. In contrast to tissue biomarkers, circulating biomarkers are more amenable to population-screening strategies, due to the ease and low cost of testing. Studies have already shown altered circulating glycans and DNA methylation in BE/EAC, whereas disease-associated changes in circulating miRNA remain to be determined. Future research should focus on identification and validation of these circulating biomarkers in large-scale trials to develop in vitro diagnostic tools to screen population at risk for EAC development.
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute; and School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Alok Kishorkumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Nicholas A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Barbour
authors.forename: Michelle M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor