DCLK1-B depletion impairs cancer stemness resulting in reduced survival potential and increased apoptosis, thus sensitizing colorectal cancer to chemoradiation.
Double cortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) is a promising therapeutic target and cancer stem cell marker, predominantly investigated in pancreatic and colorectal cancer.
In a recent study, we identified frequently methylated genes for cholangiocarcinoma (CDO1, DCLK1, SFRP1 and ZSCAN18), where one of these genes, DCLK1, was also confirmed to be highly methylated in colorectal cancer.
We further showed by Affymetrix exon arrays that DCLK1 is significantly downregulated in human colorectal cancer (n = 125) compared with normal colonic mucosa (n = 15), which was further confirmed by real-time RT-PCR of a subgroup of the samples.