GAEC1 in Colorectal Cancer: A pilot study

Abstract

GAEC1 in Colorectal Cancer: A pilot study

Gopalan, V.1,2, Salajegheh, A.1, Kim, S.Y. 1, Tiang, T. 1, Smith, R.A.1,2,Lam, A.1

1 School of Medicine, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. 2 Schools of Medical Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

Introduction: GAEC1 (gene amplified in oesophageal cancer 1) is a novel gene, located in chromosome 7q22.1, originally identified in oesophageal cancer by our group. By comparative DNA fingerprinting, we have showed that the amplification or deletion of chromosomal sequences at 7q22.1 are common events in both pre-neoplastic lesions and carcinomas. The gene has not been studied in colorectal cancer. The objective of this study was to detect the presence of GAEC1 in colorectal cancer.

Method: Colorectal cancers from 15 patients (8 males; 7 females; age ranges from 59 to 91) with resected colorectal carcinoma were collected. These patients have no family history of colorectal cancer and have not received any pre-operative chemo-radiation. The pathological features were reviewed. In all these samples, DNA was extracted. PCR was performed using primers developed for GAEC1

Results: All the cancer samples were confirmed to be adenocarcinomas (3 well-differentiated; 10 moderately-differentiated and 2 poor-differentiated). GAEC1 DNA was present in all tested tumour samples.

Conclusion: This is the first study showing that the GAEC1 gene is present in colorectal cancer. Further tests will be performed to correlate the expression and amplification of the gene with the clinicopathological features in colorectal cancer.