Distinct gene expression profiles between overt GIST and miniGIST

In contrast to the paucity of clinic GIST (Gastrointestinal stromal tumor; 0.0014 % happening rate), there is a more than twenty thousand times higher rate for miniGISTs, about ~30% of human population could be identified to have miniGISTs. Exploring the molecular differences between miniGISTs and overt GISTs will help us to understand the transformation mechanisms along with GIST progression, but C-kit and PDGFRA mutations analysis failed to identify the differences between these two groups. Conclusion: miniGISTs have significant distinct gene expression profile with overt GISTs by both unsupervised and supervised analysis. Our finding indicated that c-kit and DOG1 expression are the very early events in the genesis of miniGIST and overt GIST, and miniGIST is a molecular distinct group with overt GIST. Within our study, we collected six miniGISTs with diameter less than 1cm from autopsies and seven overt GISTs from clinic, performed the first system-wide gene expression profiling of miniGISTs and overt GISTs by 3’end RNA Sequencing, and further compared the expression profiles between these two groups.