title: Diagnostic relevance of overexpressed serine threonine tyrosine kinase/novel oncogene with kinase domain (STYK1/ NOK) mRNA in colorectal cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alterations in gene expression levels or mutations of tyrosine kinases are detected in some human cancers. In this study, we examined whether serine threonine tyrosine kinase 1 (STYK1)/novel oncogene with kinase domain (NOK) is overexpressed in patients with colorectal cancer. We also examined the clinical relevance of STYK1/NOK expression in cancer tissues.
  
  
  METHODS
  In tumor samples of patients with colorectal cancer and their matched non-cancerous samples, STYK1/NOK messenger RNA (mRNA) expression was analyzed by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Associations between the expression levels of STYK1/NOK and clinicopathological characteristics of colorectal cancer were also assessed using Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Upregulation of STYK1/NOK was found in cancer tissues even at early stage of colorectal cancer compared to normal adjacent tissues. The optimal cutoff point of 0.198 the STYK1/NOK expression showed 0.78 sensitivity and 0.75 specificity for diagnosis. Overexpressed STYK1/NOK was correlated with tumor size but had no association with other clinicopathological characteristics of colorectal cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that STYK1/NOK mRNA is widely expressed in the patients with colorectal cancer and suggest that inhibition of this molecule could potentially serve as a novel therapeutic target.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran E-mail : safaralizadeh@tabrizu.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Ayla Valinezhad
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Orang
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Safaralizadeh
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hosseinpour Feizi
authors.forename: Mohammad Hossein
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Somi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D051496:Receptor, Fibroblast Growth Factor, Type 1 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C496348:FGFR1 protein, human; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D051496:Receptor, Fibroblast Growth Factor, Type 1; C482299:STYK1 protein, human