Non-endoscopic Esophageal Sampling to Detect Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal Cancer in Veterans

This study seeks to incorporate non-endoscopic detection method (Esocheck/Esoguard) in primary care practice and test whether this screening modality increases the positive predictive value of upper endoscopy and increases the detection of Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study addresses prevention and early detection of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Prospectively collected Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data indicate that the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) has increased more than 6-fold in the past four decades. The prognosis for patients with EAC is poor with less than 20% of patients surviving beyond 5 years. The veteran population is at increased risk for EAC and its precursor lesion, Barrett's esophagus (BE), due to increased prevalence of disease risk factors including advanced age, gastroesophageal reflux, caucasian race, male sex, smoking history, and obesity compared to the general population. Research has shown that veterans often present with an advanced cancer stage, despite opportunities to screen for BE in veterans with known risk factors. Therefore, there is an urgent clinical need to improve strategies for the detection and prevention of BE and EAC.

Currently, BE is diagnosed only when patients undergo endoscopy with esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). However, due to the high cost of EGD and the lack of a randomized controlled trials supporting its efficacy, endoscopy to screen for BE is not routinely recommended. Current guidelines do recommend sedated EGD in patients with multiple BE risk factors, refractory GERD, or alarm symptoms. This strategy fails to detect BE in patients whose symptoms are well controlled with either over the counter medications or physician prescribed therapies. It also fails to detect BE in asymptomatic subjects who comprise 40% of those that develop EAC. Thus, less than 10% of esophageal adenocarcinomas are diagnosed as early stage lesions caught by surveillance of patients with previously detected BE. Ablative non-surgical therapies that have been developed for preventing cancer in patients with BE with high grade dysplasia over the past decade will have little impact and the 5 year survival for esophageal adenocarcinomas will remain a dismal 18% unless more effective programs for identifying BE and early EAC are developed.

The main hypothesis of this study is that incorporation of a non-endoscopic detection method in primary care practice will increase the positive predictive value of EGD and increase the detection of BE.

The objective of this study is to incorporate a novel unsedated BE screening method for veterans at risk for EAC into a primary care practice at a VA hospital.

Esocheck/Esoguard is a FDA approved device designed to sample the distal esophagus and analyze the collected material for presence of two methylated DNA markers.

The Specific Aims of this study are:

  1. To determine sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of Esocheck/Esoguard performed in routine practice for detecting BE in an at risk Veteran population
  2. To compare the yield of detected BE using EGD alone vs. stepwise molecular diagnostics(Esocheck/Esoguard) and endoscopic screening strategy (EGD) in at risk Veteran population

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

125

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

    • Ohio
      • Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44016
        • Recruiting
        • Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Andrew E Blum, MD/PhD
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Ashley L Faulx, MD
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Amitabh Chak, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

40 years to 85 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients who have symptomatic GERD and also meet criteria for upper endoscopic screening for BE will be accrued. Eligible patients will include:

  1. Adult Veterans > 40 and < 85 years old who have no prior EGD and can provide informed consent
  2. No known coagulopathy, no known esophageal varices.
  3. No significant dysphagia or odynophagia
  4. Documented GERD or use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for > 5 years
  5. Meet ACG Clinical Guideline criteria for BE screening (that require presence of multiple risk factors 21). Eligible subjects to qualify must have will have GERD plus at least two additional risk factors for BE (white race, obesity defined as BMI > 30, male gender, smoking history, family history).

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Patients with known coagulopathy (INR > 1.5) will be excluded
  2. Patients with known esophageal varices will be excluded.
  3. Patients with significant dysphagia (unable to swallow solids) or odynophagia will be excluded

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Screening
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Patients undergoing routine screening via upper endoscopy (EGD)
All enrolled patients will complete upper endoscopy for screening for Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.
All enrolled patients will complete the Esocheck screening test. EsoCheck is a cell collection device that is designed to collect cells of a targeted region of the esophagus. The collected cell material is examined with a two marker panel combining methylated CCNA1 and VIM. These methylated markers have 95% sensitivity and 91% specificity for detecting BE and EAC with an AUC=0.95 in studies performed among white men. Diagnostic yield of this test among Veterans is unknown.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Sensitivity and Specificity of Esocheck/Esoguard in a Veteran population
Time Frame: Through study completion, up to 2.5 years
The accuracy of a test which reports the presence or absence of a condition, in comparison to a 'Gold Standard'
Through study completion, up to 2.5 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number/percentage of screened patients with diagnosis of Barrett's esophagus and/or esophageal adenocarcinoma
Time Frame: Through study completion, up to 2.5 years
Compare diagnostic yield of EGD to diagnostic yield of Esocheck/Esoguard in Veterans
Through study completion, up to 2.5 years
Cost of two screening strategies
Time Frame: Through study completion, up to 2.5 years
Compare the cost of screening all enrolled patients by EGD alone vs. cost of selective screening by EGD in patients who have had a positive Esocheck/Esoguard test
Through study completion, up to 2.5 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Katarina B Greer, MD/MS, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 1, 2022

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

August 31, 2024

Study Completion (Anticipated)

August 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 16, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 10, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 15, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 14, 2022

Last Verified

December 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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