title: Tenascin-W, a new marker of cancer stroma, is elevated in sera of colon and breast cancer patients.
abstract: Tenascins are extracellular matrix proteins present during the development of organisms as well as in pathological conditions. Tenascin-W, the fourth and last member of the tenascin family remains the least well-characterized one. Our study aimed to evaluate the potential significance of tenascin-W as cancer biomarker by monitoring its presence in the serum of colorectal and breast cancer patients and its expression in colorectal tumor tissues. To measure serum tenascin-W levels, a sensitive sandwich-ELISA was established. Mean tenascin-W concentration in sera of patients with nonmetastatic colorectal cancer at time of diagnosis was highly increased compared to that of healthy volunteers. A similar tendency was observed for tenascin-C in the same patient cohort. However, the increase was much more striking for tenascin-W. We also detected elevated tenascin-W levels in sera of breast cancer patients. Furthermore, we could show a prominent expression of tenascin-W in extracts from colorectal tumor tissues by immunoblot analysis, whereas tenascin-W was not detectable in the corresponding normal colon mucosa. To confirm the western blot results, we performed immunohistochemistry of frozen sections of the same patients as well as of an additional, independently chosen collection of colorectal cancer tissues. In all cases, similarly to tenascin-C, tenascin-W was detected in the tumor stroma. Our results reveal a clear association between elevated levels of tenascin-W and the presence of cancer. These results warrant further studies to evaluate the potential value of serum and tissue tenascin-W levels as diagnostic, prognostic or monitoring biomarker in colorectal, breast and possibly other solid cancers.
authors.affiliation: Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Novartis Research Foundation, Basel, Switzerland. martin.degen@fmi.ch
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Degen
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brellier
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schenk
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Driscoll
authors.forename: Khalil
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zaman
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stupp
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tornillo
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Terracciano
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chiquet-Ehrismann
authors.forename: Curzio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rüegg
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Seelentag
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005629:Frozen Sections; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000737:chemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019063:Tenascin / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood*; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D019063:Tenascin