Hypomethylation and increased expression of the putative oncogene ELMO3 are associated with lung cancer development and metastases formation.

Numerous genetic and epigenetic events driving tumorigenesis have been characterized. However, knowledge is lacking on the particular events required for the metastatic spread of cancer cells. The engulfment and cell motility 3 (ELMO3) gene plays an important role for the migratory potential of cells, but have not previously been studied in primary samples from cancer patients.

Increased sensitivity of KRAS mutation detection by high-resolution melting analysis of COLD-PCR products.

Considerable effort has been invested in the development of sophisticated technologies enabling detection of clinically significant low-level tumor specific KRAS mutations. Coamplification at lower denaturation temperature-PCR (COLD-PCR) is a new form of PCR that selectively amplifies mutation-containing templates based on the lower melting temperature of mutant homoduplexes versus wild-type homoduplexes. We have developed a fast COLD-PCR and high-resolution melting (HRM) protocol to increase the sensitivity of KRAS mutation detection.