Cancer: Biomarkers of paraganglioma metastatic potential identified.

摘要

Overexpression of both vascular eiulothelial growth factor (VEGF;) and a natural Linlisensc Ibrm of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (aHIF) is associated with decreased metastasis-free survival in patients with paraganglioma (PGL.), according to a study conducted at Radboud University Xijinegen Medical Centre, The Netherlands.Paul Span and his research team set out to investigate the role of hypoxia-induced gene expression, in particular aHIF, on disease progression, frozen tumor tissue collected from 87 patients with PGL. enabled Span and colleagues to correlate the expression ol aHIF and VEGF as assessed by quantitative RT-PCR, with tumor subtypes characterized by specific germline mutations and with disease prognosis, alter a follow-up period of up to 21 years. The results indicated that aHTF and VEGF are overexpressed in PGL.s with a hypoxic-like phenotype that results from mutations in SDH and/or VH