Signaling in colorectal cancer. Two recent papers by PhD students Stine A. Danielsen and Terje Ahlquist and colleagues
Novel genetic and epigenetic alterations in components of the PI3-AKT and the RAS-MAPK pathways identified in colorectal cancer.
PhD student Stine Aske Danielsen and coauthors identified 16 novel somatic PTEN mutations in colorectal cancer, published in Human Mutation (IF = 6.3) this month. We show that mutations of PTEN appear to play an important role in the development of a subgroup of sporadic colorectal cancer, and these changes are mutually exclusive with TP53 mutations.
In a recent joint study from Dept Cancer Prevention and Department of Experimental Medicine and Pathology, Sapienza, University of Rome, PhD student Terje Ahlquist and colleagues have published a detailed study of the neurofibromatosis type 1 gene (NF1), a negative regulator of KRAS signaling, in colorectal cancer, Neoplasia (IF= 5.7). By a combinatory methodological approach the 60 exons and intron-exon borders of NF1 were analysed, and changes in NF1, and /or BRAF, KRAS and RASSF1A in the MAP-kinase pathway were found in 74% of all carcinomas.
The articles can be found following these links.