Chemoprevention of esophageal cancer with esomeprazole and aspirin therapy: Efficacy and safety in the phase III randomized factorial ASPECT trial.

LBA4008Background: Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) is the sixth most common cause of global cancer death. We rely on endoscopy screening to identify and monitor patients with Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and find neoplastic lesions early enough to manage their EA. This approach has a modest effect on EA supported by low quality evidence. We evaluated the efficacy of aspirin and high dose acid suppression in preventing EA in patients with BE. Methods: We recruited patients with ≥ 1cm of BE and no high grade dysplasia (HGD) or EA at baseline in UK and Canadian hospitals. To conceal allocation, a central trials unit randomized patients using a computer-generated schedule. Patients were randomized unblinded 1:1:1:1 in a 2X2 factorial design to high dose (40mg twice daily) or low dose (20mg once daily) esomeprazole proton pump inhibitor acid suppression (PPI), alone or combined with low dose aspirin 300mg/day (330mg in Canada). The primary composite endpoint was time to all-cause mortality or EA or HGD analyzed usi...