A series of microRNA expression signatures that may help to define progression of the precancerous condition Barrett's esophagus into esophageal adenocarcinoma was reported in the March 2013 issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Once a rare cancer representing only 5 percent of all esophageal cancers in the United States, esophageal adenocarcinoma is the cancer with the fastest-rising incidence — six-fold increase in the past three decades — and currently comprises more than 80 percent of all new esophageal cancer cases in this country," said Xifeng Wu, M.D., chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston. "To reduce the mortality of esophageal adenocarcinoma, the best hope in the near term is to detect it at its early stage, or even better, to prevent the progression of esophageal adenocarcinoma from its premalignant lesion, which is called Barrett's esophagus." Dr. Wu and colleagues evaluated microRNAs, which are a class of small ribonucleic acids in cells capable of regulating a large number of genes. Research has shown that aberrant expression of microRNAs can be involved in cancer development. The researchers compared hundreds of microRNAs in normal esophageal epithelia and in Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma tissues of different histological grades with distinct progression risks. They identified a number of differentially expressed microRNAs at each histological stage. "The expression of microRNAs in Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma tissues was remarkably similar, indicating that the microRNA aberrations were very early events in the development of Barrett's esophagus," Dr. Wu said.Login Or Register To Read Full Story