October 07, 2011

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A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researcher is one of five co-principal investigators in a new collaborative network established to study genetic determinants of Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.
Dr. Nicholas Shaheen

Dr. Nicholas Shaheen

Nicholas J. Shaheen, MD, MPH, professor in the UNC School of Medicine, adjunct professor of epidemiology in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and director of the UNC Center for Esophageal Diseases and Swallowing, will co-direct the Barrett’s Esophagus Translational Research Network (BETRNet) projects.

The BETRNet is funded by a $5.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Other co-principal investigators of the consortium are Amitabh Chak, MD, professor of medicine at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine; Sanford Markowitz, MD, PhD, Ingalls Professor of Cancer Genetics at the CWRU School of Medicine; Nathan A. Berger, MD, Hanna-Payne Professor of Experimental Medicine at CWRU; Robert Elston, PhD, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at CWRU; and William Grady, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

“Collaborations such as these between basic and translational scientists and clinical researchers will be essential to unravel the complex interplay between environmental and genetic influences on cancer development,” Shaheen said.

Roy C. Orlando, MD, Mary Kay & Eugene Bozymski and Linda & William Heizer distinguished professor of gastroenterology and adjunct professor of cell and molecular physiology at UNC, is also a member of the BETRNet faculty.

Although the rate of many common cancers has declined in recent years, the rate of esophageal cancer has increased greater than sixfold over the past three decades. The prognosis for the cancer remains poor, accounting for more than 1 in 50 adult male cancer-related deaths. Although Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor of esophageal cancer, can be recognized easily during endoscopy, current medical strategies of performing endoscopy based on the close association of Barrett’s with chronic heartburn in adults are very inadequate. Nearly 40 percent of patients who develop esophageal cancer have no preceding symptoms of heartburn, and most people with heartburn never have endoscopy. Less than 5 percent of cancers are diagnosed at an early stage in patients whose Barrett’s was recognized prior to cancer diagnosis.

The BETRNet projects include discovery of genes that cause Barrett’s esophagus to run in certain families, genes that become targets of DNA methylation in Barrett’s and in esophageal cancers, and genes that are either turned on or turned off in Barrett’s esophagus and in esophageal cancers. The overall aims of the network are to develop new methods of identifying individuals at risk for Barrett’s esophagus, early detection of Barrett’s and esophageal cancers, and monitoring Barrett’s esophagus to recognize when it is likely to progress to cancer.

 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.

 

 

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