A New Diagnostic Tool For Colorectal Cancers Prognosis

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Also Included In: Colorectal Cancer
Article Date: 22 Sep 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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To analyze the clinical significance of BAMBI, authors studied its expression in CRC using immunohistochemical staining. They show that BAMBI overexpression is correlated with aggressive tumor phenotypes and predicts tumor recurrence and cancer-related death in CRC. BAMBI may be usable as a target for diagnostic and antibody medicine.

A research article published on August 21, 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Ohwada S from department of surgery, graduate school of medicine, Gunma University used BAMBI antibody, which is a transmembrane glycoprotein induced by BMP signaling that is related to TGF-β-type I receptors. BAMBI inhibits TGF-β signaling by forming a heterodimer with TGF-β-type II receptors. Previously, authors found that both Wnt/β-catenin signaling and TGF-β signaling activate transcription of BAMBI and that BAMBI expression is aberrantly elevated in most colorectal cancers. To analyze the clinical significance of BAMBI, they studied its expression in CRC using immunohistochemical staining.

BAMBI overexpression is correlated with aggressive tumor phenotypes and predicts tumor recurrence and cancer-related death in CRC. BAMBI may be usable as a target for diagnostic and antibody medicine.

The expression level of BAMBI plays an important role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. The development of a new active monoclonal anti-BAMBI antibody may offer a great improvement in survival of CRC patients and might also serve as a diagnostic tool for CRC prognosis. This is an extremely well written and researched paper. It discovers yet another marker of prognosis for colorectal carcinoma.

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Reference: Togo N, Ohwada S, Sakurai S, Toya H, Sakamoto I, Yamada T, Nakano T, Muroya K, Takeyoshi I, Nakajima T, Sekiya T, Yamazumi Y, Nakamura T, Akiyama T. Prognostic significance of BMP and activin membrane-bound inhibitor in colorectal cancer. World J Gastroenterol 2008; 14(31): 4880-4888 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/4880.asp

Correspondence to: Susumu Ohwada, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University,3-39-22 Showa-Machi, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

Source: Lin Tian
World Journal of Gastroenterology

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