Colorectal Cancer (CRC) in developed countries is the major causes of cancer death. It may have sporadic or hereditary origin. Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) is a very frequent hereditary syndromes predisposing to Colorectal Cancer and is characterized by the development of numerous precancerous polyps (from hundreds to thousands) in the second decade of life. Classical FAP is caused by g...

The Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) gene is mutated in the majority of colorectal cancers (CRCs). Loss of APC leads to constitutively active WNT signaling, hyperproliferation, and tumorigenesis. Identification of pathways that facilitate tumorigenesis after APC loss is important for therapeutic development. Here, we show that RAC1 is a critical mediator of tumorigenesis after APC loss. We find...

The germline transmission of a mutation in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene leads to cancer of the gastro-intestinal tract upon somatic inactivation of the remaining allele in familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) patients. APC mutations result in truncated products that have primarily lost the ability to properly regulate the level of the transcription factor β-catenin. However, colore...

BACKGROUND Hepatoblastoma is a rare, rapidly progressive, usually fatal childhood malignancy, which if confined to the liver can be cured by radical surgical resection. An association between hepatoblastoma and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), which is due to germline mutation of the APC (adenomatous polyposis coli) gene, has been confirmed, but correlation with site of APC mutation has no...

Truncating mutations affect the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene in most cases of colon cancer, resulting in the stabilization of β-catenin and uncontrolled cell proliferation. We show here that colon cancer cell lines express also the paralog APC-like (APCL or APC2). RNA interference revealed that it controls the level and/or the activity of β-catenin, but it is less efficient and binds l...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The role of Helicobacter pylori and atrophic gastritis in the pathogenesis of gastric lesions in familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) has not been clarified. PATIENTS Thirty one patients with FAP. METHODS The presence of fundic gland polyposis (FGP) and gastric adenoma (GA) was determined by upper endoscopy with biopsies. The degree of gastric mucosal atrophy and H pylor...

It has been proposed that multiple rare variants in numerous genes collectively account for a substantial proportion of multifactorial inherited predisposition to a variety of diseases, including colorectal adenomas (CRA). We have studied this hypothesis by sequencing the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene in 691 unrelated North American patients with CRAs and 969 matched healthy controls. R...

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an inherited disorder caused by germline mutation of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene. Increased risk of hepatoblastoma (HBL) in FAP kindreds has been re ported. To determine whether inactivation of the APC gene plays a role in development of HBL, 13 sporadic infantile hepatic tumors were analyzed for genetic alterations in the APC gene. A PCR-me...

Germ line mutations in the Adenomatous polyposis coli tumor suppressor gene cause a hereditary form of intestinal tumorigenesis in both mice and man. Here we show that in Apc(Min/+) mice, which carry a heterozygous germ line mutation at codon 850 of Apc, there is progressive loss of immature and mature thymocytes from approximately 80 days of age with complete regression of the thymus by 120 da...