Molecular analysis of gene expression in tumor pathology.

Abstract

Human cancers are diverse in their pathology and responsiveness to clinical treatment. This diversity is at least in part due to variations in cellular gene expression programs. Although the analyis of proteins--the key players in cells and potential drug targets--is advancing rapidly, there are situations in which the analysis of RNA rather than proteins can provide valuable information for the diagnosis of cancer. These situations include absense of an antibody for the protein of interest, expression of functionally defective proteins, expressed small nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), analysis of alternatively or abnormally spliced molecules, and functional analysis of splice site mutations. In this chapter we will focus on the analysis of RNA from clinical samples and will summarize how gene expression studies on the RNA level using a variety of new tools can be useful for discovering new classes of tumors, for predicting clinical outcome or therapy response, and for designing novel personalized clinical interventions that can not be achieved with histology alone.

• Authors: Heinz Höfler, Katja Specht, Karl-Friedrich Becker
• Journal: Advances in experimental medicine and biology (Adv Exp Med Biol) Vol. 532 Pg. 19-26 ( 2003) ISSN: 0065-2598 [Print] United States
• PMID: 12908546 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)

Chemical References

• Cadherins
• Genetic Markers
• RNA, Messenger
• RNA
• DNA

Topics

• Cadherins (biosynthesis)
• DNA (metabolism)
• Exons
• Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
• Genetic Markers
• Humans
• Mutation
• Neoplasms (diagnosis, genetics, metabolism)
• Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
• RNA (metabolism)
• RNA, Messenger (metabolism)