Twist1 expression in colorectal cancer : preliminary results

Metastasis, the foremost cause of mortality in patients with colorectal cancer, is incresingly recognized as a coordinated biological process. The molecular dissection of the multistep process of metastasis is far from being understood. Colorectal cancers (CRC) with microsatellite instability (MSI) are less metastatic than microsatellite-stable (MSS) CRC, yet the molecular bases of the reduced metastatic potential of MSI CRC remain unclear. Epithelial cancers other than CRC, showing chromosomal instability but not MSI, shift to a metastatic phenotype through the abnormal expression of genes driving mesenchimal development in embryos. This process, defined as epithalial-to-mesenchimal-transition is largely unexplored in CRC, particularly as to the underlying type of instability in microsatellites sequences or at the chromosomal level. Twist1, is a major player both in embryos plasticity and in EMT, but its potential involvement in CRC progression to metastasis has not been explored. AIM To investigate the expression of Twist1 in human CRC of different pathological stages with and without MSI, to see whether EMT takes places in the progression of CRC with different types of genomic and genetic instabilities.