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Updated: Jun 1, 2026
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The Use of Reverse Phase Protein Arrays (RPPA) to Explore Protein Expression Variation within Individual Renal Cell Cancers
Published on: January 22, 2013
Differential genetic expression in large versus small clear cell renal cell carcinoma: results from microarray
Gennady Bratslavsky1, Thomas Sanford, Ramaprasad Srinivasan
11. Urologic Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Journal of Cancer
|May 26, 2011
Summary
Tumor growth leads to significant gene expression changes, particularly in DNA replication and cytokine signaling pathways. These molecular alterations occur as renal tumors increase in size, offering insights into cancer progression.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
Background:
- Tumorigenesis involves multiple genetic alterations.
- Molecular events during tumor growth are not fully understood.
- Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) patients develop multiple renal tumors, providing a model for studying tumor growth.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate molecular alterations during renal tumor growth.
- To compare gene expression profiles between small and large renal tumors from the same individual.
- To identify biological events associated with increasing tumor size.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of pathology reports from 11 VHL patients undergoing partial nephrectomy.
- Gene expression profiling using Affymetrix arrays on snap-frozen tumor samples.
- Analysis included unsupervised clustering, chromosomal analysis, and paired t-tests (p<0.01).
Main Results:
- Unsupervised clustering separated tumors based on volume difference.
- Identified 860 differentially expressed genes between larger (T1b) and smaller (T1a) tumors.
- Key differences observed in genes related to DNA replication and cytokine signaling; minimal chromosomal instability noted.
Conclusions:
- Tumor size correlates with distinct gene expression differences.
- Gene expression changes are regulated in response to tumor growth or as early causative events.
- Individual transcript expression varies as tumors enlarge, despite lack of overall chromosomal instability.
