Browsing by Subject "esophageal cancer"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Cytokine Interaction With Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Esophageal Cancer
    (Sage, 2022) Hassan, Md Sazzad; Cwidak, Nicholas; Awasthi, Niranjan; von Holzen, Urs; Surgery, School of Medicine
    Esophageal cancer (EC) is a highly aggressive cancer with poor outcomes under current treatment regimens. More recent findings suggest stroma elements, specifically cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), play a role in disease occurrence and progression. Cancer-associated fibroblasts are largely the product of converted fibroblasts, but a variety of other local cell types including epithelial cells, endothelial cells, and mesenchymal cells have also been shown to transform to CAFs under the correct conditions. Cancer-associated fibroblasts primarily function in the communication between the tumor microenvironment and cancer cells via cytokine and chemokine secretions that accentuate immunosuppression and cancer growth. Cancer-associated fibroblasts also pose issues for EC treatment by contributing to resistance of current chemotherapeutics like cisplatin. Targeting this cell type directly proves difficult given the heterogeneity between CAFs subpopulations, but emerging research provides hope that treatment is on the horizon. This review aims to unravel some of the complexities surrounding CAFs’ impact on EC growth and therapy.
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    Real-world evidence of safety and effectiveness of Barrett's endoscopic therapy
    (Elsevier, 2023-08) Singh, Ritu R.; Desai, Madhav; Bourke, Michael; Falk, Gary; Konda, Vani; Siddiqui, Uzma; Repici, Alessandro; Hassan, Cesare; Sharma, Prateek; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background and Aims Real-world data on the adverse events and the survival benefit of Barrett’s endoscopic therapy (BET) are limited. The aim of this study was to examine the safety and effectiveness (survival benefit) of BET in patients with neoplastic Barrett’s esophagus (BE). Methods An electronic health record–based database (TriNetX) was used to select patients with BE with dysplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) from 2016 to 2020. Primary outcome was 3-year mortality among patients with high-grade dysplasia (HGD) or EAC who underwent BET versus 2 comparison cohorts: patients with HGD or EAC who had not undergone BET and patients with GERD but no BE/EAC. Secondary outcome was adverse events (esophageal perforation, upper GI bleeding, chest pain, and esophageal stricture) after BET. To control for confounding variables, 1:1 propensity score matching was performed. Results We identified 27,556 patients with BE and dysplasia, of whom 5295 underwent BET. After propensity score matching, patients with HGD and EAC who underwent BET had significantly lower 3-year mortality (HGD risk ratio [RR], .59; 95% CI, .49-.71; EAC RR, .53; 95% CI, .44-.65) compared with corresponding cohorts who did not undergo BET (P < .001). There was no difference in median 3-year mortality between control subjects (GERD without BE/EAC) compared with patients with HGD (RR, 1.04; 95% CI, .84-1.27) who underwent BET. Finally, there was no difference in median 3-year mortality between patients who underwent BET compared with patients who underwent esophagectomy among both HGD (RR, .67; 95% CI, .39-1.14; P =.14) and EAC (RR, .73; 95% CI, .47-1.13; P = .14). Esophageal stricture was the most common adverse event (6.5%) after BET. Conclusions Real-world, population-based evidence from this large database shows that endoscopic therapy is safe and effective for patients with BE. Endoscopic therapy is associated with a significantly lower 3-year mortality; however, it leads to esophageal strictures in 6.5% of treated patients.
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    Targeted therapy in esophageal cancer
    (AME, 2021-06) Hassan, Md Sazzad; Makuru, Victoria; von Holzen, Urs; Surgery, School of Medicine
    Esophageal cancer consists of two distinct histological types, esophageal squamous cell-carcinoma (ESCC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Esophageal carcinoma is a grave malignancy with regards to prognosis and mortality. ESCC remains the dominant histological type of esophageal cancer worldwide, with about 90 percent of all cases worldwide. However, EAC is now much more common in the United States and the Western World, and represents one of the fastest growing cancers there. Despite significant progress in multimodality treatment options, the overall prognosis remains poor, and 5-year survival rates for all-comers are still below 20 percent. Although esophageal cancer initially responds well to systemic therapy, most patients recur and eventually die from their disease. Therefore, new treatment options are urgently needed. The combination of traditional systemic therapy with new biologicals and/or targeted agents is one of these new treatment options. Some of these agents are already approved, while others are currently undergoing clinical trials. These targeted therapies have emerged as an important tool for the treatment of many different cancer types, including esophageal cancer. Herein, we review the recent literature and ongoing clinical trials in esophageal cancer targeted therapies, and discuss the different targeted pathways. Currently, most esophageal cancer patients are still treated with a combination of chemotherapies like taxanes (paclitaxel, docetaxel), platinums (carboplatin, cisplatin), anthracyclines (doxorubicin, epirubicin) or pyrimidine analogs (5-fluorouracil). Future treatment strategies should be based on the molecular features of each patient’s individual tumor, and should include biologicals/targeted agents tailored to these specific findings.