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Updated: Sep 25, 2026

Genome-Wide Analysis of DNA Methylation in Gastrointestinal Cancer
Published on: September 18, 2020
Mutations of the BAK gene are infrequent in advanced gastric adenocarcinomas in Koreans
Sang-Pyo Kim1, Mi-Sun Hwang, Young Rok Cho
1Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Keimyung University, #194 DongSan Dong Jung-Gu, 700-712 Daegu, South Korea.
Abstract:
The bcl-2 homologue antagonist/killer (BAK) is a potently apoptosis-inducing gene and plays an important role in modulating apoptosis in epithelial cells. We have analyzed the mutation of the entire coding region of BAK gene in 107 Korean advanced gastric adenocarcinomas by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism and sequencing. Homozygous deletions were not found in these samples. Only three cases of 107 gastric adenocarcinomas (2.8%) exhibited the BAK mutations. Two of them exhibited missense mutations and the remaining one had a silent mutation. All of these mutations were exclusively detected in exon 2. Mutations in the BAK gene were observed only in advanced gastric adenocarcinomas with extensive metastases of regional lymph nodes. The data presented here suggest that the mutations of BAK gene rarely occurred in advanced gastric adenocarcinomas.
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