Gene expression of mesenchyme forkhead 1 (FOXC2) significantly correlates with the degree of lymph node metastasis in colorectal cancer.
In stage III colorectal cancer, patients with N1 stage tumors show poorer outcome than patients with N2 stage tumors. Our objective was to identify genes that are predictive for the presence of lymph node metastasis, and to characterize the aggressiveness of lymph node metastases. Gene expression profiles of colorectal cancer were determined by microarray in training (n = 116) and test (n = 25) sets of patients. We identified 40 discriminating probes in patients with and without lymph node metastases. Using these probes, we could predict the presence of lymph node metastasis with an accuracy of 87.1% (training set) and 76.0% (test set). Among discriminating probes, FOXC2 expression was significantly correlated with the degree of lymph node metastasis. FOXC2 was expressed significantly and disparately in patients with N1 and N2 stage tumors as analyzed by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. FOXC2 appears to be involved in determining the aggressiveness of lymph node metastasis in colorectal cancer.
Department of Surgery, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, Japan. toshwatanabe@yahoo.co.jp
Toshiaki
T
Watanabe
Takashi
T
Kobunai
Yoko
Y
Yamamoto
Keiji
K
Matsuda
Soichiro
S
Ishihara
Keijiro
K
Nozawa
Hisae
H
Iinuma
Takamitsu
T
Kanazawa
Toshiaki
T
Tanaka
Tsuyoshi
T
Konishi
Hiroki
H
Ikeuchi
Kiyoshi
K
Eshima
Tetsuichiro
T
Muto
Hirokazu
H
Nagawa
D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C082078:mesenchyme fork head 1 protein