Overview of major molecular alterations during progression from Barrett's esophagus to esophageal adenocarcinoma

• Published in: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 1381; no. 1; pp. 74 - 91
• Main Author: Kalatskaya, Irina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.10.2016; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Accumulation; Adenocarcinoma; Adenocarcinoma - diagnosis; Adenocarcinoma - genetics; Adenocarcinoma - metabolism; Animals; Barrett Esophagus - diagnosis; Barrett Esophagus - genetics; Barrett Esophagus - metabolism; Barrett's esophagus; Biochemistry; Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics; Biomarkers, Tumor - metabolism; Cancer; cancer progression; Correlation; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p18 - genetics; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p18 - metabolism; Data mining; Disease Progression; Documents; Dysplasia; E-cadherin; Epithelium; esophageal adenocarcinoma; Esophageal cancer; Esophageal Neoplasms - diagnosis; Esophageal Neoplasms - genetics; Esophageal Neoplasms - metabolism; Esophagus; Extraction; Genes; Genetic transformation; genomic alterations; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Humans; Intestine; Membrane Proteins - genetics; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; NADPH Oxidase 5; NADPH Oxidases - genetics; NADPH Oxidases - metabolism; p53 Protein; Patients; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism; Risk factors; Transcription; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 - genetics; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 - metabolism; cancer progression; esophageal adenocarcinoma; genomic alterations; Barrett's esophagus
• DOI: 10.1111/nyas.13134
• ISSN: 0077-8923

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) develops in the sequential transformation of normal epithelium into metaplastic epithelium, called Barrett's esophagus (BE), then to dysplasia, and finally cancer. BE is a common condition in which normal stratified squamous epithelium of the esophagus is replaced with an intestine‐like columnar epithelium, and it is the most prominent risk factor for EAC. This review aims to impartially systemize the knowledge from a large number of publications that describe the molecular and biochemical alterations occurring over this progression sequence. In order to provide an unbiased extraction of the knowledge from the literature, a text‐mining methodology was used to select genes that are involved in the BE progression, with the top candidate genes found to be TP53, CDKN2A, CTNNB1, CDH1, GPX3, and NOX5. In addition, sample frequencies across analyzed patient cohorts at each stage of disease progression are summarized. All six genes are altered in the majority of EAC patients, and accumulation of alterations correlates well with the sequential progression of BE to cancer, indicating that the text‐mining method is a valid approach for gene prioritization. This review discusses how, besides being cancer drivers, these genes are functionally interconnected and might collectively be considered a central hub of BE progression.