C10435: Early Diagnosis of Esophageal Cancer in Morphologically Normal Tissue Samples
Value Proposition:
Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is a lethal disease with 5-year survival rates of only 10-20%. Worldwide, EAC is the 7th leading cause of cancer death. Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a precursor condition of EAC. Early detection is the best means to intervene in EAC. Often EAC and BE are asymptomatic, reducing the chance of early stage detection. BE patients undergo long-term surveillance in the form of repeated meticulous endoscopic searches for neoplastic changes in the esophageal tissue that indicate development of EAC. Esophageal carcinoma lesions can be especially difficult to find. Endoscopic exams are not always successful in locating small or subtle morphological changes. Therefore, more practical and efficient diagnostic tests for BE/EAC are an essential but unfulfilled medical need. JHU inventors have developed a method to detect alterations in gene expression in cells with non-detectable morphological pre-cancerous changes or in normal cells that are adjacent to early cancerous cells. ADVANTAGES:
- This method is an improvement over current diagnostic methods because it permits detection of very small neoplastic lesions from molecular biomarker patterns in morphologically normal tissue that might not be identified until a later disease stage and allows treatment to begin earlier to increase patient survival rates. - Ability to analyze molecular biomarkers from small tissue samples reduces the need for multiple, costly and uncomfortable endoscopy monitoring procedures and increases patient compliance to closely monitor precursor conditions such as Barrett’s Esophagus. - Identification of patients at risk for developing carcinoma permits more efficient surveillance of precancerous conditions and increases chance of early detection and treatment of cancer.
Technical Details:
This invention is methods of diagnosing cancer in a subject. Morphologically normal epithelial cells of the esophagus are assayed for marker expression. Characteristic expression of the markers indicates the presence of cancer or the predisposition to cancer. A panel of markers are particularly good at identifying cancer or the predisposition to cancer.
Looking for Partners:
This technology can be commercialized as method for diagnosing early stage esophageal cancer. The technology could potentially be used to develop simple tests using swab samples from the mouth.
