Methylation Status of CD44 Promoter Region in Primary Lung Cancer

November 23, 2005 updated by: National Taiwan University Hospital
This project is to study the methylation status of the transcriptional regulatory region of CD44 gene in surgically resected NSCLC specimens and normal lung tissue, correlate the methylation status of promoter region with the expression of CD44 gene, and analyze if methylation is associated with survival.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Detailed Description

CD44 is a cell surface receptor for the extracellular matrix hyaluronan. It mediates adhesion of cells to the extracellular matrix. Its ability to organize extracellular matrix into a medium is also used by cancer cells in their becoming metastatic. Invasive tumor cells are frequently observed to bind hyaluronate.

CD44 gene is made up of 20 exons, at least 10 of which are variably expressed due to alternative splicing of the mRNA. The standard form, CD44s, has a coding sequence of exons 1-5 and 16-20. Variant isoforms (CD44v), all larger, arise from alternative splicing of combinations of exons 6-15 (v1-10). A variant isoform CD44 can induce metastasis of a rat pancreatic carcinoma. Studies in human tumors, however, have produced variable results. Some breast cancers demonstrate positive correlation between CD44v expression and tumor progression, while others lack any correlation. Some colorectal tumors even show an inverse correlation. CD44 has also been demonstrated to be a metastasis suppressor gene for prostate cancer. Thus, CD44 may be a marker for metastasis for some tumors, but not for others, and it may actually be a metastasis suppressor gene for yet another groups of tumors.

For primary lung cancer, the correlation between CD44 expression and tumor metastasis has not been established. The metastasis-prone small cell lung cancer rarely showed any immunohistochemical staining for CD44s or CD44v. For non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), some studies showed positive correlation between immunohistochemical CD44v expression and tumor progression, while others showed no correlation. Our own study using RT-PCR, sequencing and immunohistochemical staining showed that in pulmonary adenocarcinoma, CD44v6 expression is down-regulated as the disease progressed. Based on our finding, and the observation that CD44s and CD44v expression are low in metastasis-prone small cell lung cancer, we assue that CD44 is a metastasis suppressor gene which is inactivated in lung cancers. Because in prostate cancer DNA hypermethylation has been shown to be related to the down-regulation of CD44 gene, we plan to study the methylation status of the transcriptional regulatory region of CD44 gene in primary lung cancer. We'll study CD44 expression by immunohistochemistry, the methylation status of CD44 regulatory region by sequencing of the bisulfite-modified genomic DNA, and correlate these two findings with each other, and with histologic type, tumor staging and survival.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment

40

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Taipei, Taiwan
        • Recruiting
        • Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nation Taiwan University Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

1 second and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Non-small cell lung cancer

Exclusion Criteria:

  • No

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: LINA LEE, MD,PhD, Department of Labrotoary Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Taipei

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2005

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 12, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 12, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

September 15, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

November 24, 2005

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 23, 2005

Last Verified

August 1, 2005

More Information

Terms related to this study

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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