However, although Src protein is increased in colon cancer as early as the adenomatous polyp stage, a role for Src in carcinogenesis has not been established.
However, two subsequent studies have failed to confirm the occurrence of SRC 531 mutation in colorectal cancers from North-European and Asiatic patients, raising the hypothesis that the genetic activation of src in colon cancer might be restricted to patients belonging to specific ethnic groups.
These results provide, for the first time, genetic evidence that activating SRC mutations may have a role in the malignant progression of human colon cancer.
However, recently truncating mutations at codon 531 of the c-src gene were reported in 12% of the advanced colon cancers, and it was also demonstrated that this change was activating, transforming, tumorigenic, and metastasis promoting.
Abundance of calpactin I in such cells is consistent with the possibility that activation of the pp60c-src tyrosine kinase contributes to the origin of human colon cancers.