High Expression of Cathepsin E in Tissues but Not Blood of Patients with Barrett's Esophagus and Adenocarcinoma.

Background: Cathepsin E (CTSE), an aspartic proteinase, is differentially expressed in the metaplasia-dysplasia-neoplasia sequence of gastric and colon cancer. We evaluated CTSE in Barrett's esophagus (BE) and cancer because increased CTSE levels are linked to improved survival in several cancers, and other cathepsins are up-regulated in BE and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC).

Methods: A total of 273 pretreatment tissues from 199 patients were analyzed [31 normal squamous esophagus (NE), 29 BE intestinal metaplasia, 31 BE with dysplasia (BE/D), 108 EAC].

Gene expression alterations in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded Barrett esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma tissues.

Background And Aim: Widespread applicability of tissue-based mRNA expression screening for Barrett esophagus (BE) is likely to require (1) accurate methods for assaying archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) histopathology specimens taken at endoscopy, and (2) validation studies of promising biomarkers in different patient cohorts.

Results: 30 genes were significantly differentially expressed by histopathology tissue type. The direction and magnitude of the differences were very similar to those found in previous studies using fresh frozen tissues.