Published in:
01-07-2014 | Research
Low Prevalence of K-RAS, EGF-R and BRAF Mutations in Sinonasal Adenocarcinomas. Implications for Anti-EGFR Treatments
Authors:
Alessandro Franchi, Duccio Rossi Degli Innocenti, Annarita Palomba, Lucia Miligi, Fabiola Paiar, Ciro Franzese, Marco Santucci
Published in:
Pathology & Oncology Research
|
Issue 3/2014
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Abstract
We have previously shown that a subset of sinonasal intestinal-type adenocarcinomas (ITAC) shows activation of the epidermal growth factor-receptor (EGFR) pathway. In this study we examine the status of the EGFR, KRAS and BRAF genes in a series of sinonasal intestinal (ITAC) and non-intestinal type adenocarcinomas (non-ITAC). Eighteen ITACs and 12 non-ITACs were studied immunohistochemically for EGFR expression. Point mutations were analyzed for EGFR exons 19 and 21, KRAS exon 2 and BRAF exon 15 by direct sequencing. Non-ITACs showed significantly higher expression of EGFR (p = 0.015). Mutation analysis revealed one ITAC with EGFR and one ITAC with KRAS mutation, while two non-ITACs presented mutation of BRAF. We conclude that a subset of sinonasal adenocarcinomas shows overexpression of EGFR, while activating mutations of the signaling cascade downstream of EGFR are rare, suggesting that these tumors could be good candidates for anti-EGFR therapies.