Biomarker qualification in Barrett s oesophagus

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A type of oesophageal or gullet cancer, called adenocarcinoma, is rapidly increasing in the western world. Most patients do not seek medical attention until they develop swallowing difficulties and by then the cancer is usually advanced with a 5-year survival of 20%. However, if the cancer is detected early then the survival rate can be improved to 80%. These cancers usually develop as a complication of a condition called Barrett?s oesophagus. However, most people in the population with Barrett?s oesophagus will not develop cancer. Therefore research is needed to identify the patients at greatest risk for oesophageal cancer. In this grant we are testing some promising molecular tools to see whether they can predict cancer progression using a large clinical biopsy resource from the Northern Ireland Barrett s Oeospagus Register. If we could find a molecular test that predicted cancer development this would prevent many patients with Barrett s oeosphagus having unecessary endoscopy examinations and enable us to target resources to patients at highest risk.