The prevalence of Kirsten (Ki)-ras gene mutations was studied in 105 paraffin-embedded tissues obtained from 40 patients with pancreatic cancer, 48 with bile duct carcinoma (19 distal, 6 middle, and 23 proximal), 16 with ampullary carcinoma and 1 with duodenal cancer, by in vitro amplification of target sequences by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Point mutations of the Ki-ras gene at codon 12 have been frequently identified in pure pancreatic juice of patients with pancreatic cancer in studies examining pancreatic cancer tissues.
To determine the incidence of circulating minimal malignant clone (CMMC) (harboring c-Ki-ras-2 mutation) in peripheral blood (PB) samples of untreated pancreatic cancer using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of c-Ki-ras-2 oncogene.
These results suggest a strong relationship between the risk of pancreatic carcinoma and the presence of combinations of K-ras gene mutation, papillary growth, and expression of sialomucin in foci of MCH.
These suggest that elevated expression of the rhoC gene may be involved in the progression of pancreatic carcinoma independent of K-ras gene activation.
K-ras gene mutations at codon 12 were detected in the sera of 14 of 20 patients with pancreatic carcinoma and in none of the six patients with chronic pancreatitis, or in the five healthy controls.
It was recently reported that the quantitative analysis of mutant K-ras gene in pancreatic juice could be useful for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
We evaluated the efficacy of an anti-K-ras hammerhead ribozyme targeted against GUU-mutated codon 12 of the K-ras gene in cultured pancreatic carcinoma cell lines.
The results from currently completed studies on the detection of mutated KRAS2 in patients with colorectal and pancreatic cancer are promising, and the potential usefulness of KRAS2 as a clinically important tumor marker should encourage future research.
At present, K-ras-2 mutation is not useful for differentiating pancreatic cancer from chronic pancreatitis or the identification of patients with chronic pancreatitis at risk for malignant transformation.
To study prospectively the utility of the K-ras gene mutation and cytology in the diagnosis and screening of PC, and to assess its contribution to clinical decision making.
The authors used quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis and direct sequencing techniques for a retrospective study of VEGF gene expression and K-ras gene status in tumor tissue samples from 48 patients with pancreatic carcinoma.