Affiliations: Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Note: [] Corresponding author: Damjan Glavač, Ph.D., Associate
Professor of Human Genetics, Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of
Medicine, Institute of Pathology, Korytkova 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Tel.:
+386 15437180, Fax: +386 15437181; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: We evaluated the occurrence of mutations in P53, K-RAS, COX-2,
expression of COX-2 and hTERT and relations among clinicopathological signs.
P53 mutations were identified in 34.4% of tumours, the majority of them
occurring in SCC (squamous cell carcinoma, 55.6%). K-RAS was mutated in
12.2% of NSCLC tumours, the majority of the mutations being found in ADC
(adenocarcinoma, 27.0%). Mutational screening detected three different COX-2
mutations and five different P53 mutations, published for the first time. With
RT-PCR we observed that the expression of the tested genes, hTERT and COX-2,
was highly significant for ADC (p < 0.01) and SCC (p < 0.05).
Statistical analysis of the combined results revealed significant correlation
between expression of COX-2 and hTERT (p < 0.001), hTERT expression and
staging (p < 0.05) and survival (p < 0.01). A positive correlation
between COX-2 expression and K-RAS mutation (p < 0.05) was also observed.
This study provides insight into associations between the analysed biomarkers
and the clinical-pathological data of the patients.
