Bay Biosciences provides tumor tissue samples, FFPE’s with matching serum (sera) and plasma from esophageal cancer patients with detailed patient clinical data to a diagnostics customer for research.

Esophageal Cancer Overview

The esophagus is a hollow muscular tube that moves food from the throat to the stomach.

Furthermore, a malignant tumor can form in the lining of the esophagus, leading to esophageal cancer. As a result, as the tumor grows, it can affect the deep tissues and muscle of the esophagus. In addition, a tumor can appear anywhere along the length of the esophagus, including where the esophagus meets the stomach.

Moreover, esophageal cancer can affect the lining, deep tissues, and muscle of the esophagus. In fact, it may not cause noticeable symptoms in its early stages. However, as it progresses, you may experience difficulty swallowing, chest pain, unexplained weight loss and a persistent cough, among other symptoms.

Additionally, risk factors for esophageal cancer include lifestyle habits like drinking alcohol and smoking, as well as medical conditions like gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) and Barrett’s esophagus.

Ultimately, doctors determine treatment options for esophageal cancer based on the cancer’s stage and other individual factors, but they may include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.

Signs and Symptoms of Esophageal Cancer

During the early stages of esophageal cancer, there may be no symptoms.

However, as cancer progresses, a person may notice the following:

  • In particular, they may experience difficulty or pain when swallowing
  • Additionally, they may also experience chest pain
  • Furthermore, unexplained weight loss may occur
  • Along with a persistent cough
  • Moreover, a hoarse voice can develop
  • And vomiting may also be present
  • Furthermore, bleeding in the esophagus, which may lead to black stools, is another possible symptom
  • Consequently, fatigue due to anemia, which can result from bleeding, may arise
  • In some cases, bone pain and other symptoms, if cancer spreads to other parts of the body
  • Finally, individuals may also experience indigestion and heartburn
  • And a lump under the skin

Causes of Esophageal Cancer

The cause of esophageal cancer isn’t yet known; however, it involves changes in the DNA of cells related to the esophagus.

Specifically, these changes signal the cells to multiply more rapidly than normal cells, and furthermore, they disrupt the signal for these cells to die when they should.

As a result, this causes cells to accumulate and ultimately become tumors.

Risk Factors of Esophageal Cancer

Some factors that may increase the risk of esophageal cancer include:

  • Firstly, alcohol consumption
  • Moreover, smoking
  • In addition, having a reflux disorder, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
  • Furthermore, having Barrett’s esophagus, which features a damaged esophageal lining due to GERD
  • Also, obesity combined with GERD
  • Finally being male, as males are three times more likely than females to develop esophageal cancer.

Diagnosis of Esophageal Cancer

Testing methods for diagnosing esophageal cancer include the following:

  • Firstly, an endoscopy involves the use of an instrument with a camera attached to a tube that goes down your throat and allows your doctor to view the lining of your esophagus to check for abnormalities and irritation.
  • Additionally, a barium swallow is an X-ray imaging test that allows your doctor to see the lining of your esophagus. To do this, you swallow a chemical called barium while the images are being obtained.
  • Furthermore, a biopsy is a process in which your doctor removes a sample of the suspicious tissue with the help of an endoscope and sends it to a lab for testing.
  • Moreover, a computerized tomography (CT scan), PET scan, or MRI may be used to see if cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

Ultimately, around half of all people who receive a diagnosis of esophageal cancer will do so when cancer has already spread beyond the esophagus.

Stages of Esophageal Cancer

The staging of esophageal cancer can be quite complex. Specifically, it will depend on the type of esophageal cancer, as well as where it spreads to, and the grade, or how fast-growing the tumor is.

In general, the basic stages are as follows, however, you can learn more in our dedicated article on how doctors stage esophageal cancer.

Stage number Description
0 High-grade dysplasia, where cancer only affects the top layer of cells in the esophagus
1 Cancer is growing in the esophagus but has not spread to lymph nodes
2 Cancer affects deeper layers around the esophagus and may affect lymph nodes
3 Cancer affects lymph nodes and tissues near the esophagus but has not reached distant organs
4 Cancer affects organs further from the esophagus and may be present throughout the body, such as the liver or lungs.

Treatment of Esophageal Cancer

Research shows how certain treatment approaches for esophageal cancer, such as surgery, compare with other approaches or no treatment. Nevertheless, an individual’s options and outlook depend on the cancer stage at diagnosis and other factors.

In fact, the  National Cancer Institute states that the chance of living another 5 years after an esophageal cancer diagnosis ranges from 5–47% with treatment.

Moreover, this range reflects the differences in survival rates when doctors find esophageal cancer early versus when the tumor spreads to other parts of the body and becomes harder to treat.

 It is worth noting, however, that while certain treatments may appear to have a higher success rate than others, ultimately, the doctor can offer treatment, and the likely outcome depends on many factors, including the stage at diagnosis.

Factors Affecting Treatment

The aim of treatment for oesophageal cancer is to either remove the tumor and other cancerous cells or, alternatively, stop the tumor from growing. To do this, a doctor may  recommend options such as:

Furthermore, factors that will affect the available options include:

  • The type of esophageal cancer
  • A person’s overall health, age, and medical history
  • The stage

Local Treatments

Local treatments target the tumor in a specific location — in this case, the esophagus and nearby tissues — without having major effects on the rest of a person’s body.

Furthermore, the following treatments are more likely to be effective for early stage cancers; **however**, doctors may also recommend them at other stages.

Firstly Surgery

Surgeons perform an esophagectomy, which is a minimally invasive procedure that involves removing the part of the esophagus that contains the tumor. In addition, an esophagogastrectomy also removes part of the stomach and nearby lymph nodes.

Nevertheless, common risks of surgery include:

  • Lung complications 
  • Swallowing issues
  • Voice changes

Moreover, rarely, complications can be life-threatening.

On the positive side, surgery can fully remove some cancers. People who undergo surgery for esophageal cancer have, on average, a 30–45% chance of surviving another 5 years or longer compared with someone who does not have surgery. **However**, this depends on the stage of the cancer.

Specifically, if a tumor is going to recur after surgery, it will usually do so soon after. Conversely, if a recurrence does not happen within 5 years, researchers say it is unlikely to do so in the future.”

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy y uses high energy X-rays to destroy cancer cells and stop them from growing. Furthermore, combining it with chemotherapy can make treatment more effective.

In fact, one study found that the 5-year survival rate for people who received combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy was  20–27%, compared with 0% for radiation therapy alone.

However, rarely, radiation therapy may lead to long-term breathing problems due to esophageal narrowing and chest damage.

Endoscopic Treatment

On the other hand, several treatment options involve passing an endoscope down the throat and into the esophagus. Specifically, endoscopic treatment is a minimally invasive treatment that can destroy and remove early stage esophageal cancer.

For example, photodynamic therapy (PDT) is one example of an endoscopic procedure. Additionally, PDT is a type of light therapy that can remove early stage cancers or stop them from developing.

Moreover, endoscopic procedures, including PDT, can also help relieve symptoms of advanced cancer that cannot be cured, such as when a tumor makes swallowing difficult. Consequently, research suggests that the average survival rate for people receiving PDT as palliative treatment is 34 months, but this will depend on various factors.

In particular, survival times range from 50.9 months for people who received PDT as their first treatment and 17.3 months for those who had already had other types.

Systemic Treatments

Systemic treatments are therapies that affect the whole body. Specifically, they come as oral or intravenous drugs that travel through the body and destroy cancer cells wherever they are.

Depending on the type and stage of esophageal cancer, a doctor may recommend several approaches.

Chemotherapy

For example, chemotherapy is one such approach. Doctors may administer treatment with chemotherapy before surgery, after surgery, or both; additionally, they may give it along with radiation therapy.

Although chemotherapy  rarely cures esophageal cancer, it can help in several ways:

  • Delay or prevent a recurrence
  • Remove cancer
  • Relieve the symptoms of advanced cancer
  • Slow progression

However, chemotherapy can have severe side effects. Typically, these side effects go away after patients finish treatment, but long-term issues such as nerve damage and hand-foot syndrome may occur.

Targeted Drug Therapy

In addition to chemotherapy, targeted drug therapy is another option. Targeted drug therapy specifically targets  the cancer’s genes or proteins, or the tissue environment contributing to cancer growth and survival.

Consequently, this treatment blocks the growth and spread of cancer cells while limiting damage to healthy cells.

Notably, some esophageal cancers have too much HER2 protein on the surface of their cells, which encourages cancer cell growth. Therefore, drugs such as trastuzumab that target the HER2 protein may help treat HER2-positive cancers. Nonetheless, it may increase the risk of long-term problems, such as heart damage.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy, therefore,  boosts the immune system’s ability to attack cancer cells. Additionally, some research suggests that immunotherapy may be more effective than chemotherapy; however, researchers need to conduct more studies.

Biospecimens

Bay Biosciences is, indeed a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Specifically, aamples available include cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Moreover, Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.

In fact, our biobank procures and stores fully consented, de-identified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.

Additionally, all our human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

In particular, critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Moreover, patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, and other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Specifically, Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples, including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

For example fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC.

Furthermore, Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Therefore, please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Types of Biospecimens

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

Customized Collections

Moreover, we can also procure most human bio-specimens. Furthermore; we offer special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, and PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols. Additionally you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.

Furthermore, Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.

 

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