Quantification of plasma beta-catenin mRNA in colorectal cancer and adenoma patients.

Purpose: Colorectal cancer is an important cause of cancer deaths. Here, we focused our investigation on the beta-catenin gene which is implicated in colorectal carcinogenesis and tested whether beta-catenin mRNA is detectable in the plasma of colorectal carcinoma and adenoma patients using quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR.

Experimental Design: Plasma beta-catenin mRNA was measured from 58 colorectal carcinoma patients, 49 colorectal adenoma patients, and 43 apparently normal subjects using intron-spanning primers and Taqman probes.

Expression of frizzled-related protein and Wnt-signalling molecules in invasive human breast tumours.

Frizzled-related protein (Frp) is a new family of secreted proteins that contain a region homologous to the extracellular cysteine-rich domain (CRD) of the frizzled family proteins. The role of Frp protein is far from clear. To explore the role of Frp and its relationship to the Wnt-signalling pathway in breast cancer, in situ hybridization and immunohistochemical analyses of Frp, Wnt-1, APC, beta-catenin, and its target genes c-myc and cyclin D1 were conducted in 70 specimens of invasive ductal carcinomas of the human breast.