[Oncogenes in human gastric carcinoma]

Abstract

Alteration of oncogene and loss of chromosomal heterozygosity are infrequent in human gastric carcinoma compared with those in other gastrointestinal carcinomas. Amplification of c-erbB-2 gene is observed in well differentiated adenocarcinoma, while sam gene is found in poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma or scirrhous carcinoma. sam gene, which was isolated from a gastric cancer cell line KATO-III by a DNA renaturation method, encodes tyrosine-specific protein kinase domain. A good correlation evidently exists between the synchronous expression of TGF alpha and ras p21 and biological malignancy of gastric carcinoma. c-myc and c-fos proteins are found not only in tumor cells but also in stromal cells including macrophages and fibroblast around the tumors. The prognosis of patients with c-myc p 62-positive stromal cells is significantly better than that of patient with p 62-negative stromal cells. Coamplification of the hst-1 gene and int-2 is observed in 50% of primary tumors and all metastatic tumors of esophageal carcinoma. PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technique seems to be useful for the detection of oncogene point mutation in human gastric carcinoma.