ORPHA:2198
Palmoplantar keratoderma-esophageal carcinoma syndrome
Also known as: Bennion-Patterson syndrome · Howell-Evans syndrome · Keratosis palmoplantaris-esophageal carcinoma syndrome · Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-esophageal carcinoma syndrome · Tylosis-oesophageal carcinoma syndrome
Query health: suspect — Only one of 2 strategies returned hits (phrase).
Publications
50
49.1th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
341
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
RHBDF2
Definitive
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare genetic disease characterized by thickening of the skin on palms and soles restricted to areas of weight bearing and/or friction (focal, non-epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma) and oral and esophageal leukokeratosis, associated with a very high lifetime risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. The skin lesions appear in childhood and can be complicated by fissuring and infection.
How rare: <1 / 1 000 000 — fewer than one in a million. In a city the size of Kolkata, that might mean on the order of fifteen people.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0007856
- MeSH:C536164
- OMIM:148500
- UMLS:C1835664
Additional Mondo synonyms (4)
keratosis palmoplantaris-esophageal carcinoma syndrome · palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-esophageal carcinoma syndrome · palmoplantar keratoderma-esophageal carcinoma syndrome · tylosis-oesophageal carcinoma syndrome
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
No matched interventional trial; the gene is known and literature exists — preclinical or natural-history work may still be the practical next step.
- Gene identifiedPresent
Definitive — RHBDF2
- LiteraturePresent
50 matched papers (39 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Yes — we know a specific gene responsible (RHBDF2).
GenCC classification: Definitive.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
50
50 papers have ever been published on this condition (under this name). For scale, breast cancer has over 700,000. Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
50 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
39 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 49.1th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 50 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
341
Distinct author names in 50 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Kelsell DP5 papers · 2022
Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK d.p.kelsell@qmul.ac.uk.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Wang H3 papers · 2025
Gastrointestinal Surgery, The second hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Brooke MA2 papers · 2015
Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Chen W2 papers · 2021
Department of Surgical Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, P.R. China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Consolini R2 papers · 2022
Section of Clinical and Laboratory Immunology, Division of Pediatrics, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Costagliola G2 papers · 2022
Section of Clinical and Laboratory Immunology, Division of Pediatrics, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07He S2 papers · 2023
Office for Cancer Screening, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Liu M2 papers · 2025
Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People's Republic of China. liumingbjh@126.com.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Singh H2 papers · 2025
Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Wang B2 papers · 2025
Thoracic Surgery, The second hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, China.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
high confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Palmoplantar keratoderma-esophageal carcinoma syndrome" OR "Bennion-Patterson syndrome" OR "Howell-Evans syndrome" OR "Keratosis palmoplantaris-esophageal carcinoma syndrome" OR "Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-esophageal carcinoma syndrome" OR "Tylosis-oesophageal carcinoma syndrome"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Palmoplantar keratoderma-esophageal carcinoma syndrome" OR "Bennion-Patterson syndrome" OR "Howell-Evans syndrome" OR "Keratosis palmoplantaris-esophageal carcinoma syndrome" OR "Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-esophageal carcinoma syndrome" OR "Tylosis-oesophageal carcinoma syndrome" OR "RHBDF2" OR "focal palmoplantar keratoderma" OR "hereditary palmoplantar keratoderma"
Recall-expansion terms: RHBDF2, focal palmoplantar keratoderma, hereditary palmoplantar keratoderma
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: suspect — strategies attempted: phrase, recall-expansion; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-26T19:26:18.493Z