Symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux are common. It affects at least 40% of the adult American population and 40 million American adults experience reflux symptoms on a regular basis. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) typically affects Caucasians and older males. It is a significant risk factor for development of Barrett's esophagus (BE) and esophageal adenocarcinoma. Approximately 10-15% of patients with chronic GERD are diagnosed with BE, a premalignant lesion for esophageal adenocarcinoma. Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus continues to be the most rapidly increasing incidence cancer in the United States. Based on studies evaluating screening/surveillance strategies, it is clear that it is imperative to identify risk factors that would target those patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and BE that may benefit from screening and surveillance strategies, yet also be practical and cost-effective. A better understanding of the events surrounding the development of BE in patients with chronic GERD, development of dysplastic changes in patients with BE and progression of BE to adenocarcinoma may ultimately help in identifying those patients at increased risk. Thus, our hypothesis is that systematic collection of data on the natural history of GERD and BE patients and risk factors for development of BE in patients with chronic GERD and progression of BE to dysplasia and adenocarcinoma will provide useful information to develop a decision model for risk stratification and risk reduction strategies in these patients. This model will be a useful tool leading to a reduction in overall health care costs.

The study will be conducted at the Kansas City Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. This is a prospective cohort study designed to analyze the epidemiologic and genetic factors relevant to development of BE in patients with GERD and its subsequent progression to dysplasia and adenocarcinoma. 1) The consenting patients as well as controls (2:1 ratio) will be asked to fill validated questionnaire on severity of GERD and food frequency. Data regarding medications, family history and social history will also be collected. 2) The endoscopy and pathology reports will be browsed for length of Barrett's esophagus confirmed by histology, length of hiatal hernia and presence of helicobacter pylori. 3) Serum samples from participating patients will be collected and frozen for measurements of insulin, glucose, lipid panel, CRP and adiponectin levels. Biopsies obtained from esophagus during endoscopy and blood samples would be frozen for future biomarker and cDNA microarray studies and histochemistry.

Approximately10-20% of the adult population has GERD and 0.5 to 2% of the adult population (1-4 million individuals) is estimated to have BE and it is a known precursor to esophageal adenocarcinoma. However, we are not yet able to reliably identify those individuals with GERD that are at risk for developing BE and with BE who are at high risk for progressing to esophageal adenocarcinoma. The identification of risk factors as the ultimate goal of this study will enable us to better identify the high-risk patients and provide early intervention and therapeutic strategies in a cost-effective manner.