You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Postscript
Correspondence
Downregulation of CDX2 in gastrointestinal neoplasia
  1. S J Hayes1,2,
  2. P K Wright3,
  3. Y Ang2,
  4. G L Carlson4
  1. 1 Department of Histopathology, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK
  2. 2 Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
  3. 3 Department of Histopathology, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK
  4. 4 Department of Surgery, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Stephen Hayes, Department of Histopathology, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Stott Lane, Salford M6 8HD, UK; stephen.hayes{at}srft.nhs.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/jclinpath-2013-201696

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Research in the field of cancer immunity, which is of increasing credence, suggests that cancer is a disorder that manifests with characteristics also present in reproductive physiology—effectively a somatic cell pregnancy.1 This paradigm complements the conventional somatic mutation theory, proposing tumorigenesis to be initiated by mutations in a growth control gene, followed by alteration of further genes with resultant malignant clonal development.2

    The former paradigm is supported by the expression of oncofetal, cancer-embryonic and cancer testis antigens in cancer, such as α-fetoprotein, carcinoembryonic antigen and NY-ESO-1. Moreover, characteristics of cancer are shared by gametogenesis and placentation; namely, invasion, angiogenesis, immune evasion and resistance to apoptosis.

    With regard to gastrointestinal neoplasia and the former paradigm, it is of interest to assess expression for CDX2; this is a transcription factor belonging to the caudal-related homeobox gene family. It …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.