The hTERT-VNTR2-2 alleles are involved in genomic stability in gastrointestinal cancer.

Background: hTERT contains a high density of minisatellites, of which rare alleles of hTERT-VNTR2-2 have been reported to be associated with prostate cancer. This shows an association between VNTR and cancer, but this repeat sequence is likely to be associated with genomic instability. Therefore, we investigated the effects of hTERT-VNTR2-2 on gastrointestinal cancer and the relationship between repeated sequence and chromosome instability.

A polymorphic minisatellite region of BORIS regulates gene expression and its rare variants correlate with lung cancer susceptibility.

Aberrant expression of BORIS/CTCFL (Brother of the Regulator of Imprinted Sites/CTCF-like protein) is reported in different malignancies. In this study, we characterized the entire promoter region of BORIS/CTCFL, including the CpG islands, to assess the relationship between BORIS expression and lung cancer. To simplify the construction of luciferase reporter cassettes with various-sized portions of the upstream region, genomic copies of BORIS were isolated using TAR cloning technology.

Cross-species hybridization of microarrays for studying tumor transcriptome of brain metastasis.

Although the importance of the cellular microenvironment (soil) during invasion and metastasis of cancer cells (seed) has been well-recognized, technical challenges have limited the ability to assess the influence of the microenvironment on cancer cells at the molecular level. Here, we show that an experimental strategy, competitive cross-species hybridization of microarray experiments, can characterize the influence of different microenvironments on cancer cells by independently extracting gene expression data of cancer and host cells when human cancer cells were xenografted into different organ sites of immunocompromised mice. Surprisingly, the analysis of gene expression data showed that the brain microenvironment induces complete reprogramming of metastasized cancer cells, resulting in a gain of neuronal cell characteristics and mimicking neurogenesis during development.

Analysis of promoter methylation and polymorphic minisatellites of BORIS and lack of association with gastric cancer.

BORIS is a member of the cancer-testis gene family that comprises genes normally expressed only in testis but abnormally activated in different malignancies. In this study, we examined the relation between BORIS expression and gastric cancer, which is the most common cancer in Korea. Abnormal BORIS expression in the patient's gastric cancer tissues was observed.

Gene expression signature-based prognostic risk score in gastric cancer.

Purpose: Despite continual efforts to develop a prognostic model of gastric cancer by using clinical and pathologic parameters, a clinical test that can discriminate patients with good outcomes from those with poor outcomes after gastric cancer surgery has not been established. We aim to develop practical biomarker-based risk score that can predict relapse of gastric cancer after surgical treatment.

Experimental Design: Microarray technologies were used to generate and analyze gene expression profiling data from 65 gastric cancer patients to identify biomarker genes associated with relapse.

Susceptibility for breast cancer in young patients with short rare minisatellite alleles of BORIS.

In this study, we characterized two blocks of minisatellites in the 5' upstream region of the BORIS gene (BORIS-MS1, -MS2). BORIS-MS2 was found to be polymorphic; therefore, this locus could be useful as a marker for DNA fingerprinting. We assessed the association between BORIS-MS2 and breast cancer by a case-control study with 428 controls and 793 breast cancers cases.

Short rare hTERT-VNTR2-2nd alleles are associated with prostate cancer susceptibility and influence gene expression.

Background: The hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase) gene contains five variable number tandem repeats (VNTR) and previous studies have described polymorphisms for hTERT-VNTR2-2nd. We investigated how allelic variation in hTERT-VNTR2-2nd may affect susceptibility to prostate cancer.

Methods: A case-control study was performed using DNA from 421 cancer-free male controls and 329 patients with prostate cancer.