APC gene mutations in the mutation cluster region are rare in esophageal cancers.

The molecular pathogenesis of esophageal cancers is not completely understood. Frequent allelic losses occur on chromosome 5q, suggesting the presence of a tumor-suppressor gene that is important in esophageal tumorigenesis. Because the APC gene is located on chromosome 5q, we sought to determine its involvement as a candidate tumor-suppressor gene in esophageal carcinogenesis. Thirty-five esophageal squamous cell carcinomas and 18 adenocarcinomas were collected with corresponding normal gastric mucosae. A region of APC spanning codons 686-1693 and including most reported mutations was screened for truncating mutations using an in vitro synthesized protein assay. Single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis was also used to examine APC codons 764-842 and codons 1032-1310 for missense and nonsense mutations. One squamous cell carcinoma and one adenocarcinoma each contained a truncating mutation within the mutation cluster region of APC. The discovery of two truncating mutations identifies APC as a gene involved in a subset of esophageal carcinomas. The low rate of APC mutation observed here, coupled with the high reported rate of loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 5q, suggests the possibility that a gene or genes on chromosome 5q distinct from APC may be the target(s) of allelic deletion in most esophageal tumors.