Evidence for the involvement of the Wnt 2 gene in human colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent cancers in humans. It develops via a multistage process involving alterations of both protooncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. In the present report we determined the level of expression of several Wnt genes in CRC by RT-PCR and direct sequencing. While Wnt-1 was not detectably expressed in any colonic tissues, Wnt-5a gene was efficiently expressed both in nontumorous as web as in colonic tumor tissues. In contrast, the Wnt-2 gene, which was expressed at low levels in normal colon, exhibited overexpression in all tumor tissue samples at the different Dukes' stages of including premalignant polyps and Overexpression of the Wnt-2 gene occurred also in other digestive neoplasms such as gastric and esophageal carcinomas, as well as in diverticulitis associated with stenosis or pseudo-tumor.