Evaluating markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition to identify cancer patients at risk for metastatic disease.

ABSTRACT: Most cancer deaths are due to metastases. Markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) measured in primary tumor cancer cells could be helpful to assess patient risk of metastatic disease, even among those otherwise diagnosed with local disease. Previous studies of EMT markers and patient outcomes used inconsistent methods and did not compare the clinical impact of different expression cut points for the same marker. Using digital image analysis, we measured the EMT markers Snail and E-cadherin in primary tumor specimens from 190 subjects in tissue microarrays from a population-based prospective cohort of colorectal cancer patients and estimated their associations with time-to-death. After measuring continuous marker expression data, we performed a systematic search for the cut point

SUBMITTER: Busch EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4742430 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature