Tyrosine kinases and gastric cancer

Abstract

Carcinoma of the stomach is one of the most prevalent cancer types in the world today. Two major forms of gastric cancer are distinguished according to their morphological and clinicopathological classi®cations (well dierentiated/intestinal type and poorly dierentiated/diuse type), characteristics that could also be attributed to the altered expression of dierent types of oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. Signi®cant dierences exist for gastric cancer incidence comparing people of dierent ethnic origins, implicating various genetic and epigenetic factors for gastric oncogenesis. There are only a limited number of molecular markers available for gastric cancer detection and prognostic evaluation, among which are tyrosine kinases. There is convincing evidence that tyrosine kinases are involved in oncogenesis and disease progression for many human cancers. Ampli®cations of certain tyrosine kinases (cmet, k-sam and erbB2/neu) have been associated with human gastric cancer progression. Alternatively spliced transcripts and enhanced protein-expression levels for some of these tyrosine kinases are correlated with clinical outcomes for gastric cancer patients. With advent of high throughput techniques, it is now possible to detect nearly all expressed tyrosine kinases in a single screen. This increases the chance to identify additional tyrosine kinases as predictive markers for gastric cancers. In this article, we will ®rst review the literature data concerning certain tyrosine kinases implicated in gastric carcinogenesis and then summarize more recent work which provide comprehensive tyrosine kinase pro®les for gastric cancer specimens and cell lines. Two new gastric cancer molecular markers (tie-1 and mkk4) have been identi®ed through the use of these pro®les and demonstrated eective as clinical prognostic indicators. Oncogene (2000) 19, 5680 ± 5689.

Neuropeptide-Induced Androgen Independence in Prostate Cancer Cells: Roles of Nonreceptor Tyrosine Kinases Etk/Bmx, Src, and Focal Adhesion Kinase

“…We took advantage of our knowledge of the complete tyrosine kinase expression profile of LNCaP cells as determined by an effective reverse transcription-PCR approach developed in our laboratory. Based on this approach, we know there are 21 receptor tyrosine kinases and 11 nonreceptor tyrosine kinases expressed in this cell type (50,70). The nonreceptor tyrosine kinases are Jak, Tyk2, Src, yes, csk, FAK, Pyk2, Etk, Brk, Abl, and Arg.…”

Overexpression of the receptor tyrosine kinase EphA4 in human gastric cancers

“…Genetic and epigenetic alterations play important roles in the development and progression of gastric cancer [1,2] . Considerable attention has been given to the potential role of tyrosine kinases in gastric cancer [3][4][5][6] . The Ephrin (Eph) receptors constitute the largest family of tyrosine kinase receptors [7][8][9][10] .…”

Soluble angiogenesis markers in gastric tumor patients.

“…In such situation, chemotherapy might be warranted [2]. Molecular markers of solid tumors, if accessible, can not only be useful in classifying the cancer, but they can also suggest dissemination of the disease [3].…”