These findings support a common increased expression of selected gene products in different tumors of endodermal origin and suggest that increased P0 expression, in line with certain other ribosomal proteins, may be associated with human colorectal cancer progression and biological aggressiveness.
Allelic loss was studied for chromosomes 5, 17, and 18, and immunohistochemical analysis was done of the p53 protein product in tumors from 91 patients with colorectal cancer.
MCC is a gene located within human chromosome band 5q.21 that shows somatically acquired mutations in colorectal cancer, and may be identical to the gene responsible for inheritance of familial adenomatous polyposis.
The expression of the c-myc protein product (p62 c-myc) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) ploidy status was determined by a flow cytometric technique in 83 patients with colorectal cancer followed up for a median of 30 months (range 6-60 months).
These data not only allow use of flanking markers for presymptomatic diagnosis of FAP but also provide a high-density map of the region for isolation of the APC gene itself and for further assessment of the role of chromosome 5 deletions in the biology of sporadic colorectal cancer.
This dual parameter flow cytometric method, evaluating both DNA ploidy and p53 expression, may prove useful in identifying different biological subgroups of colorectal cancer.
Our results suggest that mRNA expression of the laminin-binding protein may be a marker of human colorectal cancer progression and biological aggressiveness.