Gene amplification is one of the mechanisms to activate oncogenes in many cancers, including esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA). In the present study, we used two-dimensional restriction landmark genome scanning to clone a NotI/DpnII fragment that showed increased genomic dosage in 1 of 44 EAs analyzed. This fragment maps to 3q26.3-q27, and subsequent experiments identified two intrachromosomal amplicons within a 10-Mb DNA segment in 7 of 75 (9%) EAs. The distal amplified-core region maps centromeric to the PIK3CA locus, and a microsatellite (D3S1754) within this region exhibited significant instability (MSI), in stark contrast to the genomewide microsatellite stability found in EA. D3S1754-MSI arises in premalignant Barrett's dysplastic cells and preceded amplification of the nascent MSI allele in the corresponding EA. Seven ESTs within the amplified-core were overexpressed in amplicon-containing EAs. One of these, EST AW513672, represents a chimeric transcript that initiated from an antisense promoter sequence in the 5'UTR of a full-length LINE-1 element (L1-5'ASP). Similar chimeric transcripts encoding portions of the MET oncogene and the BCAS3 gene also were overexpressed in EAs, suggesting that L1-5'ASP activation may occur at a broad level in primary EAs. Thus, the fine dissection of a 2-Mb amplified DNA segment in 3q26.3-q27 in EA revealed multiple genetic alterations that had occurred sequentially and/or concurrently during EA development.