Phenotypic and genetic alterations in pre-cancerous cells in the colon.
Cell dysplasia in polyps and in ulcerative colitis are thought to be the pre-cancerous lesion leading to invasive colon cancer. Many polyps and dysplastic lesions in ulcerative colitis have phenotypic changes (blood group antigen, cytokeratins, CEA, TAG-72.3 antigen expression) and genetic changes (c-K-ras mutation, enhanced c-myc expression and pp60c-src activity) which are characteristic of invasive cancers. Thus, these early pre-cancerous lesions may be a late stage in the genetic evolution of colon cancer.
D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D011905:Genes, ras; D006801:Humans; D009857:Oncogenes; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011519:Proto-Oncogenes