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c-MYC and h-TERT co-expression in colon adenocarcinoma: a tissue microarray digitized image analysis
G Georgakopoulos1, E Tsiambas, P Korkolopoulos
1Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital of Thiva, Thiva, Greece.
Purpose:
c-MYC oncogene is frequently deregulated by amplification in colon adenocarcinoma. c-MYC also activates telomerase by inducing expression of its catalytic subunit (h-TERT). Furthermore, telomerase activation plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis by sustaining cellular immortality. Our aim was to evaluate the significance of c-MYC and h-TERT co-expression in colon adenocarcinoma.
Methods:
Sixty paraffin embedded primary colon adenocarcinomas were cored at 1.5 mm diameter and transferred to one microarray block. Immunohistochemistry was performed using anti-h-TERT, and c - MYC antibodies. A quantitative digitized macro was performed to evaluate their expression.
Results:
c-MYC and h-TERT overexpression was observed in 27 (45%) and 28 (46.6%) cases, respectively. Co-over expression of those genes was observed in 17 (28.3%) cases and found to be statistically significant (p=0.001). The results also showed a strong association between c-MYC and grade of differentiation of the examined neoplasms (p=0.0217rpar;.
Conclusion:
Simultaneous c-MYC and h-TERT deregulation is a relatively frequent genetic event in colon adenocarcinoma. Because c-MYC overexpression is correlated with progressive disease - due to colon adenocarcinoma dedifferentiation - inhibition of its activity combined with h-TERT regulated expression is a new target for novel therapeutic regimens.
