Microsatellite instability in japanese esophageal carcinoma

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that microsatellite instability (MSI) may play an important role in the development of various types of cancer. However, there have been only 2 reports describing MSI in esophageal carcinoma and the clinicopathologic significance of MSI in this malignancy has not yet been clarified. To better elucidate the role of genetic instability in the development of esophageal carcinoma, we investigated the presence of MSI in 32 cases of esophageal cancer using paired samples of fresh frozen tumor and normal tissue by a method based on the polymerase chain reaction. MSI was defined as occurring in tumors which showed altered banding patterns at one or more microsatellite loci. The incidence of MSI in esophageal carcinoma was 6 out of 32 patients. MSI was observed more frequently in cases with small-cell carcinoma (2 out of 2) than in cases with squamous-cell carcinoma (4 out of 29). No cases with adenocarcinoma or Barrett's metaplasia were included in our series. No significant correlations between MSI and other clinicopathologic parameters were observed. The present study suggests that (1) some Japanese esophageal carcinomas certainly correlate with DNA replication error, and (2) MSI may be more frequent in small-cell carcinoma of the esophagus than in squamous-cell carcinoma of the esophagus.

Infrequent microsatellite instability in oesophageal cancers

“…It is noteworthy from Table 2 that oesophageal tumours with an instability index between 10% and 40% were detected only in series analysed with a small number of microsatellites (Meltzer et al, 1994;Keller et al, 1995;Nakashima et al, 1995) whereas, in series analysed with at least 17 microsatellites (Mironov et al, 1995;Gleeson et al, 1996;present series), tumours had an instability index either below 10% or above 40%. This observation suggests that there is also a background of MI in oesophageal cancers and that only 3 out of 94 (3%) BA and 2 out of 109 (2%) SCC are really RER+ tumours in the literature.…”

“…Together with our study, they included a total of 109 SCCs and 94 BAs (Meltzer et al, 1994;Keller et al, 1995;Mironov et al, 1995;Nakashima et al, 1995;Gleeson et al, 1996). Only the study by Meltzer et al (1994) and our series included both types of oesophageal cancer: SCC and BA.…”

“…In bladder, breast and lung cancers, MI has been reported with variable frequency (Gonzalez-Zulueta et al, 1993;Merlo et al, 1994; Schridar et al, 1994). There are conflicting reports concerning the presence of MI in oesophageal cancers (Meltzer et al, 1994;Keller et al, 1995;Mironov et al, 1995;Nakashima et al, 1995;Gleeson et al, 1996). Cancer of the oesophagus is among the most common and severe malignant neoplasms in the world (Muller et al, 1990;Parkin et al, 1993).…”

True

“…We have previously reported detection of microsatellite instability in six cases of 32 human oesophageal carcinomas obtained from surgical resection (Nakashima et al, 1995). The genetic mutation of TGF-β RII, Smad2 and Smad4 was studied in these carcinomas with or without microsatellite instability and adjacent normal mucosa.…”

“…We have previously reported less frequency of microsatellite instability in oesophageal carcinomas (Nakashima et al, 1995), one of the aggressive human cancers (Sugimachi et al, 1994). In this study, we analysed genetic mutations of TGF-β RII, Smad2, and Smad4 in these oesophageal samples with microsatellite instability or stability.…”