title: Changes in c-Kit expression levels during the course of radiation therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
abstract: In the era of intensity-modulated radiotherapy, distant metastasis is currently the main cause of treatment failure for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Additional therapeutic strategies are required to control the metastasis and improve survival. One strategy is targeted therapy, for example against c-Kit. In the current study, the frequency of c-Kit expression was determined immunohistochemically in 106 NPC patients. c-Kit expression changes during the course of radiation therapy were detected in 41 cases via weekly biopsy. Twelve cases (11.3%) had c-Kit expression scores of 3+and 16 (15.1%) had scores of 2+. Thus, c-Kit overexpression (2+or 3+) was observed in 28 (26.4%) patients. There were 35 (33.0%) and 43 (40.6%) patients with c-Kit expression scores of 1+and 0, respectively. Furthermore, a trend of decreased c-Kit expression was observed after commencing radiotherapy according to the 41 NPC patients who were biopsied weekly. Therefore, c-Kit overexpression was identified to be common in NPC, and evaluating c-Kit as a therapeutic target for metastatic NPC via c-Kit overexpression subsequent to first line treatment may be of interest. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to demonstrate a trend of decreased c-Kit expression during the course of radiotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China; Department of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: National Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Bicheng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yongjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shui
authors.affiliation: National Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: National Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoqiu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaozhong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China; National Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China; National Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qichun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wei
keywords: c-Kit; metastasis; nasopharyngeal carcinoma; radiotherapy; targeted therapy