Exome and transcriptome sequencing identifies loss of in metastatic colorectal cancers.

Background: Understanding the genomic determinants associated with metastasis in colorectal cancers (CRCs) provides crucial clues for improving patient care.

Patients And Methods: In this study, we performed whole-exome sequencing as well as RNA sequencing analyses on five pairs of primary and liver metastasized samples from CRC patients together with blood/normal control samples for each pair.

Results: We identified genomic deletions in the region of 8p21-23 ( value <0.01) from analysis of recurrent regions with copy number variations in both primary and matched metastatic lesions. Consistent with this result, we found significantly decreased expression levels of all 12 genes (, , , , , , , , , , and ) located within this region (adjusted <0.01). Notably, the mRNA levels of , a key regulator of well-known cancer-associated genes including the proto-oncogene , an early response gene , and regulators of apoptosis such as , , and , were highly downregulated in tumors compared to normal tissues.

Conclusion: Taken together, our findings uncovered various genomic alterations potentially leading to metastasis in CRC and provide important insights into the development of potential therapeutic targets for preventing metastatic progression of CRC.