Project description:Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most commonly occurring cancer worldwide. Thirty-five percent of CRC patients are diagnosed at stage II/III, and their outcome differs even if they are in the same stage. Previous study found that the microenvironmental collagen is associated with tumor progression and metastasis. Whether tumor microenvironmental collagen signature is associated with colorectal cancer prognosis still remains unknown. We hypothesize that the tumor microenvironmental collagen signature of colorectal cancer is associated with prognosis.
Project description:The clinical management of colorectal cancer patients has significantly improved due to the identification of new chemotherapeutic targets. Since rapid tumor proliferation is associated with poor patient prognosis, here we characterize the transcriptional signature of rapidly proliferating colorectal cancer cells in an attempt to identify novel candidate therapeutic targets. Therefore, the doubling time of 52 colorectal cancer cell lines was determined and genome-wide expression profiling of a subset of 31 of these cell lines was assessed by microarray analysis.
Project description:We established human colorectal tumor organoids from benign adenoma, primary colorectal cancer or metastasized colorectal cancer. The gene signature of tumor organoids associated with their tumor progression status. We also generated genome-edited organoids from human intestinal organoids recapitulating adenoma-carcinoma sequence. Gene expression signature of the genome engineered organoids were similar to that of adenoma organoids. This result indicated multiple (up to five) genetic mutations were insufficient for gene expression reprogramming of colorectal cancer. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression in human colorectal tumor organoids and artificially mutation introduced organoids.
Project description:We obtained fibroblast cultures from fresh surgical specimen ressected from patients with primary colorectal carcinoma: normal colonic fibroblasts (NCF=9) from the normal colonic mucosa at least 5-10cm from the surgical margin, carcinoma-associated fibroblasts from the primary tumor (CAF-PT=14) and carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAF-LM=11) from fresh surgical specimens of liver metastases. We identified 277 probes, in common between the three types of fibroblasts, whose expression level is sequentially deregulated according to cancer progression (NCF→CAF-PT→CAF-LM; fold change Log2 normalized expression>1.5 in each step). Prediction Analysis of Microarrays was applied to obtain a 25-gene signature that better characterizes each fibroblast class. The signature is able to classify patients carrying primary tumors according to prognosis. This fact was exploited to obtain a 19-gene signature (from the 277 deregulated probes) predicting recurrence with high accuracy in stage II/III colorectal cancer patients. Signature validation has been carried out in two independent datasets and in a meta-cohort of 336 stage II/III patients. Since the 25-gene signature was obtained regardless of gene expression data of tumor specimens or patient’s clinical data, the prognostic power of this signature provides strong evidence of the link between the tumor stroma and cancer progression. Furthermore, the 19-gene signature was able to identify low-risk patients with very high accuracy, especially relevant for those high-risk stage-II patients. We hybridised fibroblast RNA in Affymetrix GeneChip 1.0 st arrays
Project description:Gene-expression profiles of hepatitis C-related, early-stage liver cirrhosis Background & Aims: Liver cirrhosis affects 1%M-bM-^HM-^R2% of population and is the major risk factor of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hepatitis C cirrhosis-related HCC is the most rapidly increasing cause of cancer death in the US. Non-invasive methods have been developed to identify patients with asymptomatic, early-stage cirrhosis, increasing the burden of HCC surveillance, but biomarkers are needed to identify patients with cirrhosis who are most in need of surveillance. We investigated whether a liver-derived 186-gene signature previously associated with outcomes of patients with HCC is prognostic for patients newly diagnosed with cirrhosis but without HCC. Methods: We performed gene expression profile analysis of formalin-fixed needle biopsies from the livers of 216 patients with hepatitis C-related early-stage (Child-Pugh class A) cirrhosis who were prospectively followed for a median of 10 years at an Italian center. We evaluated whether the 186-gene signature was associated with death, progression of cirrhosis, and development of HCC. Results: Fifty-five (25%), 101 (47%), and 60 (28%) patients were classified as having poor-, intermediate-, and good-prognosis signatures, respectively. In multivariable Cox regression modeling, the poor-prognosis signature was significantly associated with death (P=.004), progression to advanced cirrhosis (P<.001), and development of HCC (P=.009). The 10-year rates of survival were 63%, 74%, and 85% and the annual incidences of HCC were 5.8%, 2.2%, and 1.5% for patients with poor-, intermediate-, and good-prognosis signatures, respectively. Conclusions: A 186-gene signature used to predict outcomes of patients with HCC is also associated with outcomes of patients with hepatitis C-related early-stage cirrhosis. This signature might be used to identify patients with cirrhosis in most need of surveillance and strategies to prevent their development of HCC. 216 liver biopsy specimens
Project description:We noticed that a recently identified poor prognosis stem/serrated molecular subtype of colorectal cancer (CRC) is characterized by up-regulation of transcripts known to be also expressed by stromal cells. To better define the origin of such transcripts, we analyzed RNAseq and microarray datasets from CRC mouse xenografts, where human cancer cells are supported by murine stroma. The analysis revealed that mRNA levels of stem/serrated subtype genes are mostly due to stromal expression, even when the stromal fraction is below 5%. Indeed, a classifier based on genes exclusively expressed by cancer-associated fibroblasts was significantly associated, in multiple datasets, to poor prognosis of CRC and to radioresistance of rectal cancer. Tumor Matched with Corresponding PDX
Project description:Colorectal cancer (CRC) with high rate of mortality is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in worldwide. Advanced colorectal cancer is often accompanied by malignant proliferation of tumor cells. Further researches on colorectal cancer proliferation to find new targets and develop new therapeutic regimen are an important direction for colorectal cancer treatment. In this study, genome-wide RNAi screening was used to discover the essential genes associated with colorectal cancer cell proliferation. We found DKC1 (dyskerin pseudouridine synthase 1) promoted CRC proliferation through binding and modifying ribosomal proteins (RPL10A, RPL22L1, RPL34, RPS3) mRNA to increase the mRNAs stability and eventually increasing their expression. Besides, DKC1 is highly expressed in colorectal cancer and its aberrantly high expression is associated with poor prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. These results suggest that DKC1 could be a new therapeutic target for colorectal cancer.