Clinical Cancer Research, Vol 2, Issue 7 1151-1154, Copyright © 1996 by American Association for Cancer Research

ARTICLES

Overexpression of the human erythrocyte glucose transporter occurs as a late event in human colorectal carcinogenesis and is associated with an increased incidence of lymph node metastases

M Younes, LV Lechago and J Lechago
Departments of Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.

Energy metabolism of human colon cancer in vivo relies predominantly on glucose. Although studies have revealed increased expression of Glut1 mRNA in colon cancer, Glut1 protein (Glut1) expression in the large intestine and its significance are still unknown. The objective of this work was to determine whether Glut1 is present in human colorectal neoplasms and whether that presence is of biological significance. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections of 53 colonic adenocarcinomas, 82 adenomas, 46 hyperplastic polyps, and 38 normal colon samples were immunostained with the anti-Glut1 antibody MYM. The localization was carried out using the avidin-biotin immunoperoxidase technique. No Glut1 immunoreactivity was present in normal colonic mucosa or in hyperplastic polyps, whereas 8 (10%) of 82 adenomas showed such immunoreactivity. The frequency of Glut1 expression in adenomas increased with villous morphology and with the size of the adenoma. Forty-four (83%) of 53 colorectal adenocarcinomas expressed Glut1, and, of these, tumors in which >50% of the cancer cells expressed Glut1 had a significantly higher incidence of metastasis to the lymph nodes (P = 0.0001). It is concluded that (a) Glut1 is expressed as a late event in the carcinogenesis process in human colorectal cancer, and (b) expression of Glut1 in a high proportion of cancer cells is associated with a high incidence of lymph node metastases.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Xiao, L. J Hennings, T. M Badger, and F. A Simmen Fetal programing of colon cancer in adult rats: correlations with altered neonatal growth trajectory, circulating IGF-I and IGF binding proteins, and testosterone J. Endocrinol., October 1, 2007; 195(1): 79 - 87. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Mayer, M. Hockel, A. Wree, and P. Vaupel Microregional Expression of Glucose Transporter-1 and Oxygenation Status: Lack of Correlation in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancers Clin. Cancer Res., April 1, 2005; 11(7): 2768 - 2773. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T.-C. Yen, L.-C. See, C.-H. Lai, C. W. Yah-Huei, K.-K. Ng, S.-Y. Ma, W.-J. Lin, J.-T. Chen, W.-J. Chen, C.-R. Lai, et al. 18F-FDG Uptake in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Cervix Is Correlated with Glucose Transporter 1 Expression J. Nucl. Med., January 1, 2004; 45(1): 22 - 29. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N Raghunand, R A Gatenby, and R J Gillies Microenvironmental and cellular consequences of altered blood flow in tumours Br. J. Radiol., December 1, 2003; 76(suppl_1): S11 - S22. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. C. Rathmell, C. J. Fox, D. R. Plas, P. S. Hammerman, R. M. Cinalli, and C. B. Thompson Akt-Directed Glucose Metabolism Can Prevent Bax Conformation Change and Promote Growth Factor-Independent Survival Mol. Cell. Biol., October 15, 2003; 23(20): 7315 - 7328. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. A. Gatenby and T. L. Vincent An Evolutionary Model Of Carcinogenesis Cancer Res., October 1, 2003; 63(19): 6212 - 6220. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. C. Osthus, H. Shim, S. Kim, Q. Li, R. Reddy, M. Mukherjee, Y. Xu, D. Wonsey, L. A. Lee, and C. V. Dang Deregulation of Glucose Transporter 1 and Glycolytic Gene Expression by c-Myc J. Biol. Chem., July 14, 2000; 275(29): 21797 - 21800. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]