title: Common denominator genes that distinguish colorectal carcinoma from normal mucosa.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Microarray technology has been used by a growing number of investigators and several studies have been published that list hundreds of genes differentially expressed by colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and normal mucosa (MC). On the basis of our own and other investigators' microarray data, our goal was to identify a common denominator gene cluster distinguishing CRC from MC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty GeneChips (HG-U133A, Affymetrix) were hybridized, 20 with RNA of CRC stages I-IV (UICC) and 10 with MC. Expression signals showing at least a 4-fold difference between CRC and MC (p<0.01) were identified as differentially expressed. In addition, in our integrative data analysis approach only those genes whose expression was altered simultaneously in at least 2 of 5 recently published studies were subjected to an unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We detected 168 up- and 283 down-regulated genes in CRC relative to MC. Twenty-three genes were filtered from the five articles reviewed. An unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis of these 23 genes confirmed the high specificity of these genes to differentiate between CRC and MC in our microarray data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Colorectal cancer and mucosa could be clearly separated by 23 genes selected for being differentially expressed more than once in a recent literature review. These genes represent a common denominator gene cluster that can be used to distinguish colorectal MC from CRC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Erlangen, Krankenhausstrasse 12, 91054 Erlangen, Germany. Roland.Croner@chir.imed.uni-erlangen.de
authors.forename: Roland S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Croner
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Foertsch
authors.forename: Wolfgang M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Brueckl
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Guenther
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Siebenhaar
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stremmel
authors.forename: Klaus E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Matzel
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Papadopoulos
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kirchner
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Behrens
authors.forename: Ludger
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Klein-Hitpass
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stuerzl
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hohenberger
authors.forename: Bertram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Reingruber
mesh_terms: D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics*; D015536:Down-Regulation; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000473:pathology*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015854:Up-Regulation