About the Authors

Caryn S. Ross-Innes

Affiliation MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Irene Debiram-Beecham

Affiliation MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Maria O'Donovan

Affiliation Department of Histopathology, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Elaine Walker

Affiliation MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Sibu Varghese

Affiliation MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Pierre Lao-Sirieix

Affiliation MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Laurence Lovat

Affiliation University College London Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Michael Griffin

Affiliation Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Krish Ragunath

Affiliation Nottingham Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Rehan Haidry

Affiliation University College London Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Sarmed S. Sami

Affiliation Nottingham Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Philip Kaye

Affiliation Nottingham Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Marco Novelli

Affiliation University College London Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Babett Disep

Affiliation Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Richard Ostler

Affiliation Cancer Prevention Trials Unit, London, United Kingdom

Benoit Aigret

Affiliation Cancer Prevention Trials Unit, London, United Kingdom

Bernard V. North

Affiliation Cancer Prevention Trials Unit, London, United Kingdom

Pradeep Bhandari

Affiliation Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Adam Haycock

Affiliation St Mark's Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Danielle Morris

Affiliation East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust–QEII and Lister Hospitals, Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage, United Kingdom

Stephen Attwood

Affiliations Northern Region Endoscopy Group, United Kingdom, North Tyneside General Hospital, North Shields, United Kingdom

Anjan Dhar

Affiliations Northern Region Endoscopy Group, United Kingdom, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, Durham, United Kingdom

Colin Rees

Affiliations Northern Region Endoscopy Group, United Kingdom, South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust, South Shields, United Kingdom

Matthew D. D. Rutter

Affiliations Northern Region Endoscopy Group, United Kingdom, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom

Peter D. Sasieni

Affiliation Cancer Prevention Trials Unit, London, United Kingdom

Rebecca C. Fitzgerald

rcf29@MRC-CU.cam.ac.uk

Affiliation MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

on behalf of the BEST2 Study Group

Membership of the BEST2 Study Group is provided in the Acknowledgments.

Competing Interests

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).

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RCF PDS. Performed the experiments: CSRI EW MOD. Analyzed the data: CSRI RCF. Wrote the paper: RCF CSRI PLS. Constructed the figures: CSRI PLS. Co-ordinated the study: IDB. Involved in data collection: CSRI IDB MOD EW SV LL MG KR RH SSS PB AH DM SA AD CR MDDR. Involved with pathology review: MOD PK MN BD. Built the study database: RO. Clinical manager: BA. Did the statistical analysis: BVN PDS. Enrolled patients: IDB. Agree with manuscript results and conclusions: CSRI IDB MOD EW SV PLS LL MG KR RH SSS PK MN BD RO BA BVN PB AH DM SA AD CR MDDR PDS RCF. All authors have read, and confirm that they meet, ICMJE criteria for authorship.