Esophageal cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer death and remains one of the least survivable cancers. Esophageal cancers show wide variations in incidence in different population, suggesting that environmental or lifestyle risk factors could be controlled to reduce risk of these diseases. There are two major histopathologic types (squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma) of esophagea...

The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma has been rising in many countries, while esophageal squamous cell carcinoma has remained stable or even declined in the same populations over the identical periods. These differences in trends indicate that these cancer subtypes may have a different etiology, which may be caused by lifestyle factors such as alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking. Th...

In patients with Barrett’s esophagus, the native squamous epithelium of the esophagus is replaced by metaplastic columnar epithelium that is subject to dysplasia and mutation into esophageal adenocarcinoma. The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma, a particularly lethal form of cancer, increased by a factor of 6 in the United States between 1975 and 2001.1 Identified risk factors for esophage...

Esophageal cancer is a lethal disease with poor survival rate. It is necessary to determine the extension, and the stage of the tumor to predict the outcome of patients. Of the two common pathologic types, squamous cell carcinoma is still the most common form, and adenocarcinoma is the leading one. Early diagnosis and radical treatment of esophageal cancer, regardless of tumor spreading, increa...

BACKGROUND Podocalyxin-like protein (PODXL) is a cell surface transmembrane glycoprotein, the expression of which has been associated with poor prognosis in a range of malignancies. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of PODXL expression on survival in esophageal and gastric adenocarcinoma. METHODS The study cohort consists of a consecutive series of 174 patients with esophage...

The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma has increased in recent years, and Barrett's esophagus is a recognized risk factor. Gastroesophageal reflux of acid and/or bile is linked to these conditions and to reflux esophagitis. Inflammatory disorders can lead to carcinogenesis through activation of "prosurvival genes," including cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS...

OBJECTIVES Concern has been expressed that antacid drugs increase the risk of esophageal and gastric adenocarcinomas. METHODS This population-based case-control study recruited patients with incident esophageal adenocarcinoma (n = 220), gastric cardiac adenocarcinoma (n = 277), or distal gastric adenocarcinoma (n = 441) diagnosed between 1992 and 1997, and 1,356 control participants in Los An...

BACKGROUND Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize microbial and endogenous ligands and have already shown to play a role in esophageal cancer. In this study, we evaluated especially TLRs that sense bacterial cell wall components in Barrett's esophagus, dysplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma. METHODS TLRs 1, 2, 4 and 6 were stained immunohistochemically and assessed in esophageal specimens from...

BACKGROUND The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma has increased markedly in recent decades in many countries. Obesity is a potential risk factor, although the results of individual studies differ. We did a systematic review and statistical synthesis of studies that evaluated the association between body mass index (BMI) and the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma or the adjacent gastric cardi...

Esophageal carcinoma is the eighth most common cancer, and the sixth most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide [1]. Esophageal carcinomas in developing nations account for more than 80% of the total cases and deaths [1]. Esophageal cancer can arise as esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) or esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), which have distinct etiological and pathological charact...