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- Title
Expression of the proto-oncogene c-KIT in normal and tumor tissues from colorectal carcinoma patients.
- Authors
Sammarco, Innocenzo; Capurso, Gabriele; Coppola, Luigi; Bonifazi, Antonio Paniccià; Cassetta, Sara; Delle Fave, Gianfranco; Carrara, Alessandro; Grassi, Giovanni Battista; Rossi, Pellegrino; Sette, Claudio; Geremia, Raffaele
- Abstract
Background and aims: The proto-oncogene c-KIT encodes a tyrosine kinase receptor essential during embryonic development and postnatal life. Although deregulated expression of c-KIT has been reported, its role in colorectal carcinoma remains controversial: some authors have described a correlation between c-KIT expression and colorectal cancer (CRC), while others have failed to detect the receptor in the majority of neoplasia examined. To address this question, we designed a prospective study to analyze the expression of c-KIT in normal and neoplastic colonic mucosa of the same patient. Patients and methods: We analyzed the tissues of 20 patients undergoing surgical resection for colorectal carcinoma by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, Western blot and immunohistochemistry, whose results were correlated with histopathological parameters. Results: Most patients (90%) showed c-KIT expression in normal tissue both at RNA and protein level, while in neoplastic tissue it was observed in 30% of patients at RNA level and in 10% at protein level. By immunohistochemistry the localization of c-KIT protein in the normal colon was restricted to interstitial cells scattered in the stroma, whereas the non-neoplastic epithelium was always negative. The mucinous carcinomas were all c-KIT negative, whereas the only case in which c-KIT was displayed in the neoplastic epithelium was a G3 adenocarcinoma. Conclusion: Most colorectal carcinomas do not express c-KIT. We suggest that c-KIT expression is rarely present in this neoplasia; thus, the use of receptor inhibitors should be conducted in selected sub-groups of colon carcinoma patients, subsequent to the clear demonstration of c-KIT overexpression in the neoplastic cells.
- Subjects
ONCOGENES; TUMORS; COLON cancer; CANCER patients; TYROSINE
- Publication
International Journal of Colorectal Disease, 2004, Vol 19, Issue 6, p545
- ISSN
0179-1958
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00384-004-0601-9