Evaluation of a minimally invasive cell sampling device coupled with assessment of trefoil factor 3 expression for diagnosing Barrett's esophagus: a multi-center case-control study
- PMID: 25634542
- PMCID: PMC4310596
- DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001780
Evaluation of a minimally invasive cell sampling device coupled with assessment of trefoil factor 3 expression for diagnosing Barrett's esophagus: a multi-center case-control study
Abstract
Background: Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a commonly undiagnosed condition that predisposes to esophageal adenocarcinoma. Routine endoscopic screening for BE is not recommended because of the burden this would impose on the health care system. The objective of this study was to determine whether a novel approach using a minimally invasive cell sampling device, the Cytosponge, coupled with immunohistochemical staining for the biomarker Trefoil Factor 3 (TFF3), could be used to identify patients who warrant endoscopy to diagnose BE.
Methods and findings: A case-control study was performed across 11 UK hospitals between July 2011 and December 2013. In total, 1,110 individuals comprising 463 controls with dyspepsia and reflux symptoms and 647 BE cases swallowed a Cytosponge prior to endoscopy. The primary outcome measures were to evaluate the safety, acceptability, and accuracy of the Cytosponge-TFF3 test compared with endoscopy and biopsy. In all, 1,042 (93.9%) patients successfully swallowed the Cytosponge, and no serious adverse events were attributed to the device. The Cytosponge was rated favorably, using a visual analogue scale, compared with endoscopy (p < 0.001), and patients who were not sedated for endoscopy were more likely to rate the Cytosponge higher than endoscopy (Mann-Whitney test, p < 0.001). The overall sensitivity of the test was 79.9% (95% CI 76.4%-83.0%), increasing to 87.2% (95% CI 83.0%-90.6%) for patients with ≥3 cm of circumferential BE, known to confer a higher cancer risk. The sensitivity increased to 89.7% (95% CI 82.3%-94.8%) in 107 patients who swallowed the device twice during the study course. There was no loss of sensitivity in patients with dysplasia. The specificity for diagnosing BE was 92.4% (95% CI 89.5%-94.7%). The case-control design of the study means that the results are not generalizable to a primary care population. Another limitation is that the acceptability data were limited to a single measure.
Conclusions: The Cytosponge-TFF3 test is safe and acceptable, and has accuracy comparable to other screening tests. This test may be a simple and inexpensive approach to identify patients with reflux symptoms who warrant endoscopy to diagnose BE.
Conflict of interest statement
The Addenbrooke's Hospital Human Research Tissue Bank, supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, supported this study. This study was funded by a project grant from Cancer Research UK. The device was designed by RCF and her research team in between 2009 and 2010. Patents and a trademark were filed in 2010 by the Medical Research Council (MRC). The BEST2 study was designed in 2010 and the device was manufactured for the specific purpose of this study following a letter of no objection from the Medical Health Regulatory Agency. In 2013 the MRC licensed the technology to Covidien GI Solutions. They have had no influence in any way on the design, conduct or analysis of this trial and the manuscript was not disclosed to them until after acceptance for publication. RCF, MOD and PLS are named inventors on patents pertaining to the Cytosponge and related assays. They have not received any financial benefits to date. Since December 2013, after completion of this study, PLS is now employed partly by Covidien GI Solutions. All other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. RCF has programmatic funding from the Medical Research Council and infrastructure support from the Biomedical Research Centre and the Experimental Medicine Centre. MDDR has received travel reimbursement for conferences (Abbvie 2014), honoraria (Dr Falk 2013), unrestricted grant research (Olympus 2014) and shares (AstraZeneca, held for >20 years).
Figures
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Comment in
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Simple test can determine which patients need endoscopy for Barrett's oesophagus.BMJ. 2015 Feb 2;350:h527. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h527. BMJ. 2015. PMID: 25645931 No abstract available.
References
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- Ronkainen J, Aro P, Storskrubb T, Johansson SE, Lind T, et al. (2005) Prevalence of Barrett's esophagus in the general population: an endoscopic study. Gastroenterology 129: 1825–1831. - PubMed
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- Gerson LB, Shetler K, Triadafilopoulos G (2002) Prevalence of Barrett's esophagus in asymptomatic individuals. Gastroenterology 123: 461–467. - PubMed
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