Novel FISH Probes

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Invention Summary Studies have reported that patients suffering from BE have a 120-fold higher risk of developing EA. Moreover, most BE patients currently undergo rigorous therapeutic and surgical procedure to alleviate progression to EA. Currently, there are no available methods or tests to predict the progression of BE to EA. It is estimated that the esophageal cancer therapeutics market will grow at a CAGR of 14% to reach $594.7m by 2017. The current standard of care is to treat each high grade BE case as a potential cancer patient. The surgical intervention and aggressive acid suppressive therapies that are used are expensive as well as require nonessential medical procedures on the patients. Rutgers scientists have identified and characterized FISH probes as markers for testing the progression of Barrett’s epithelium (BE) to Esophageal Adenocarcinoma (EA). This team has illustrated that two FISH probes can reliably predict progression to EA due to translocation changes in chromosome 10 and 16 serving as predictive biomarkers for EA. Their potential product is a kit to detect two or three-way translocation of Chr10, 16 or Chr2, 10 and16 in genetic sample from BE tissue in patients, using 2 or 3 FISH probes. The scientists present an easy cost effective, relatively noninvasive method to conduct the genetic analysis. This unique technology from Rutgers offers a novel method of early detection and prediction of the disease. Market Application •  Early prediction of potential malignancies •  Cost effective method of prediction in minimal invasive procedure Advantages •  First of its kind genetic test for predictive analysis of EA •  Easy methodologies to conduct the analysis •  Preventing unnecessary surgical procedures in patients that will not develop EA