Study of molecular markers correlating with prognosis and result of therapy colorectal carcinoma.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancer in this country and abroad. A major problem in the treatment of this disease is interindividual variability in response to treatment, since a large proportion of patients show resistance or adverse toxicity to the drug. The cause of this variability can be an individual's genetic makeup. From this perspective a need to find molecular markers for prognosis of the disease and markers through which we can predict response to therapy is growing. The main aim of this study was to find differences in gene expression between healthy and tumor tissue from patients well and poorly responding to treatment based on 5-fluorouracil and compare the results to clinical data. This study aimed to evaluate gene expression of 14 potential molecular markers involved in 5-FU pathways involving metabolism, transport, and objectives of the drug. Patients selection for the study was based on 5-FU regimens treatement. Expression was evaluated in two independent sets consisting of patients with indicated palliative or adjuvant chemotherapy. For each patient malignant and paired nonmalignant tumor tissue was available. Gene expression in these samples was measured using real-time RT-PCR with relative quantification using the preamplified cDNA. In the first phase the gene..