Zhang H, Nordenskjöld B, Dufmats M, Söderkvist P, Sun X F
Division of Cell Biology, Linköping University, Sweden.
Eur J Cancer. 1998 Dec;34(13):2053-7. doi: 10.1016/s0959-8049(98)00283-4.
The K-ras gene in codons 12 and 13 was investigated using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction in matched normal mucosa (n = 106), transitional mucosa (n = 69) and tumours (n = 149) from 149 patients with colorectal adenocarcinomas. K-ras mutations in codon 12 were detected in 41/149 (28%) of tumours and 4/69 (6%) of transitional mucosa samples, but not in the normal mucosa. Further, mutation rates were increased in younger patients (P = 0.001) and in mucinous carcinomas (50%) compared with well differentiated (17%), moderately differentiated (26%) or poorly differentiated (24%) tumours. Our findings indicate that mucinous carcinoma may represent a distinct genetic entity.
