Deletion at fragile sites is a common and early event in Barrett's esophagus.

ABSTRACT: Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a premalignant intermediate to esophageal adenocarcinoma, which develops in the context of chronic inflammation and exposure to bile and acid. We asked whether there might be common genomic alterations that could be identified as potential clinical biomarker(s) for BE by whole genome profiling. We detected copy number alterations and/or loss of heterozygosity at 56 fragile sites in 20 patients with premalignant BE. Chromosomal fragile sites are particularly sensitive to DNA breaks and are frequent sites of rearrangement or loss in many human cancers. Seventy-eight percent of all genomic alterations detected by array-CGH were associated with fragile sites. Copy number losses in early BE were observed at particularly high frequency at FRA3B (81%), FRA9A/C (71.4%),

SUBMITTER: Lai LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3100793 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature