MC1R and PTCH gene polymorphism in French patients with basal cell carcinomas.

In this study, we assessed the role of melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) variants and of two patched (PTCH) polymorphisms (c.3944C>T (P1315L), insertion 18 bp IVS1-83) as risk factors for basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in the French population. The population investigated comprised 126 BCC patients who were enrolled on the basis of specific criteria (multiple and/or familial BCC and/or onset before the age of 40 years and/or association with another tumor)--and 151 controls matched for ethnicity, age, and sex.

Differential molecular profiling between skin carcinomas reveals four newly reported genes potentially implicated in squamous cell carcinoma development.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) are skin tumors with different invasive potential. In this work, we analysed mRNA differential expression between seven BCC and five SCC and their normal skin counterparts using 1176 cDNA macroarrays and verification by RT-PCR to identify genes modulated in each tumor type. We identified 37 genes commonly modulated in both tumors and four genes specifically modulated in SCC.