Evaluating the expression level of ER-α۳۶ in gastric cancer tissue

Background and Aim: Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the world and the second leading cause of cancer deaths. Moreover, it is an aggressive disease with poor ۵-year survival. The early stages of this malignancy are not having prominent symptoms, hence in the advanced stages, which are totally cancerous, there is a little chance of curing. Molecular biomarkers have a high potential to provide an appropriate and sensitivity for the primary diagnosis of cancer. ER-α۳۶ is a specific variant of the estrogen receptors, which is associated with the pathogenesis of cancer. Given the limited data available from this gene, in order to better understanding and identifying the biomarkers associated with gastrointestinal cancers, the expression level of the ER-α۳۶ was measured.Methods: In this study, ۴۰ tissue samples including ۳۰ samples with adenocarcinoma and ۱۰ non-cancerous control samples were collected. Total RNA was isolated from frozen tissue samples of gastric cancer biopsies and then cDNA was synthesized. The alteration of gene expression was evaluated by using quantitative real-time PCR.Results: Our findings showed that the expression level of ER-α۳۶ was significantly upregulated in ۲۳ cancerous specimens (P=۰.۰۱۴۸) in comparison with the normal tissues, and there is a correlation between age, sex, and type of gastric cancer.Conclusion: the results also recommend that expression profiling of ER-α۳۶ can be used to diagnose gastric cancer, and the gene seems to be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis of early-stage gastrointestinal cancers.

Keywords:

Biomarker , Gastric , Cancer , ER-α۳۶