Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma, Searching for Reliable Diagnostic RNA Plasma-based Biomarkers

This study is designed to perform a explorative search of the transcriptome to detect new circulating diagnostic sensitive and specific biomarkers in patients with Barrett's esophagus or esophageal adenocarcinoma.

By developing new tools for risk-assessing of Barrett's esophagus (BE) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) in a population at risk, the investigators expect that diagnosis can be done in an earlier stage resulting in an improved 5-year survival. A proof-of-concept RNA profiling study will be done in 20 BE and EAC patients where 2 biomaterials (tissue and plasma) and 2 RNA biotopes (micro RNA and messenger RNA) will be compared. Previously validated methodology on small RNA and messenger RNA capture sequencing on both tissue and plasma will be used to obtain high-quality data. Differential expression analysis will be done on tissue and plasma sample data. Additional in-depth data-mining will be done, amongst other focusing on structural information encoded in the transcriptome and building a multifeature classifier. These findings will be validated in a large validation cohort, followed by development of a clinical-grade quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) test, ready for testing in an independent cohort.