Division of Human Nutrition and Epidemiology, Wageningen University, PO Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen and
1 Department of Pathology, UMC St Radboud, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
![]() |
Abstract |
---|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
---|
Abbreviations: APC, adenomatous polyposis col; CI, confidence interval; MCR, mutation cluster region; MSI, microsatellite instability; OR, odds ratio; p53neg, p53 overexpression-negative; p53pos, p53 overexpression-positive; SSCP, single-strand conformation polymorphism.
![]() |
Introduction |
---|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
---|
Mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), K-ras and p53 genes as well as microsatellite instability (MSI) are commonly observed genetic alterations in colon cancer. Mutations in APC (i.e. those mutations resulting in loss of APC function) are believed to be a key initiating event in colon cancer (24). K-ras mutations are thought to accompany the conversion of small to larger adenomas and have been reported to occur in 3040% of sporadic colon tumors (5,6), whereas mutation of p53 seems to be especially important in the later stages of colon tumorigenesis (7). MSI occurs in most colon tumors associated with the hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer syndrome and in 1020% of sporadic colon tumors (811).
Interestingly, significant inverse relationships have been observed between the presence of MSI and mutations in APC, K-ras and p53 in sporadic colon tumors (12,13). This suggests different molecular pathways to colon cancer which in turn may reflect different environmental exposures. Supporting this idea, Bardelli et al. (14) recently demonstrated that exposure to specific carcinogens can indeed select for colon tumor cells with distinct forms of genetic alterations. Regarding smoking, K-ras (15,16) and p53 mutations (17,18), GT transversions in particular, are significantly more prevalent in lung cancers from smokers than in lung cancers from non-smokers, suggesting an etiological link between exposure to tobacco smoke carcinogens and these genetic alterations.
Few studies have examined associations between smoking and genetic alterations in colon cancer. Those that have (6,1921) generally limited their analyses to alterations in one specific gene. Intriguingly, Freedman et al. (19), who used p53 overexpression as an indicator of p53 mutations, observed an increased risk of p53 overexpression-negative (p53neg) colon tumors for smokers. Slattery et al. (20) and Yang et al. (21) both reported a positive association between cigarette smoking and sporadic colon tumors with MSI. To (further) explore the hypothesis that cigarette smoking is primarily associated with a specific colon tumor subgroup(s), in this study we assess the associations between smoking and the occurrence of (specific) mutations in the APC, K-ras and p53 genes, p53 overexpression and MSI in sporadic colon carcinomas.
![]() |
Material and methods |
---|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
---|
Data collection
Participants were interviewed in their own homes by trained dieticians using a structured questionnaire. The interval between diagnosis and the interview was, for cases, 36 months. Cigarette smoking status (never, ever, ex, current) was determined. Participants who had stopped smoking 1 year or more prior to the date of the interview were classified as ex-smokers; participants who had stopped <1 year prior to the interview date or were still smoking were classified as current smokers. Information about the number of years smoked and the number of cigarettes usually smoked per day (categorized in four categories: 1<5, 5<15, 15<25 and 25 cigarettes) was obtained. Years since first started smoking was calculated from information on duration of smoking and, if applicable, time since stopped smoking. The interview also consisted of a dietary history part in which information on the frequency and amounts of foods consumed in the year prior to the interview (for cases, the year preceding diagnosis or complaints) was collected. Information on aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, family history of colorectal cancer and medical history was also obtained during the interview.
DNA extraction
Both tumor and normal DNA were extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded colon tissue, collected before chemo- or radiotherapy started, as described elsewhere (24). Microdissection was performed and for tumor DNA only those areas containing >60% tumor cells were used. Corresponding normal DNA was isolated from tumor-free colon tissue.
APC mutation detection
Single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was used to screen the APC gene for mutations. The majority of the somatic mutations in APC seem to cluster within a small region in exon 15 (codons 12861513), the so-called mutation cluster region (MCR) (2527). Our analysis covered codons 12861585 (extended MCR) of APC. The region was divided into five 220 bp long overlapping fragments (codons 12861358, 13371404, 13871455, 14371526 and 15091585, respectively), which were separately amplified in two consecutive PCRs using the following primer sets (primer sequence 5'
3'). Fragment 1: 1.1 forward CAGACTTATTGTGTAGAAG, reverse CGCTCCTGAAGAAAATTCAAG (codons 12601358); 1.2 forward GAAATAGGATGTAATCAGACG, reverse CGCTCCTGAAGAAAATTCAAC (codons 12861358). Fragment 2: 2.1 forward ACTGCAGGGTTCTAGTTTATC, reverse TCTGCTTGGTGGCATGGTTT (codons 13371436); 2.2 forward ACTGCAGGGTTCTAGTTTATC, reverse GAGCTGGCAATCGAACGACT (codons 13371404). Fragment 3: 3.1 forward CTCAGACACCCAAAAGTCC, reverse ATTTTTAGGTACTTCTCGCTTG (codons 13661455); 3.2 forward TACTTCTGTCAGTTCACTTGATA, reverse ATTTTTAGGTACTTCTCGCTTG (codons 13871455). Fragment 4: 4.1 forward AAACACCTCCACCACCTCC, reverse TCATTCCCATTGTCATTTTCC (codons 14371536); 4.2 forward AAACACCTCCACCACCTCC, reverse GCATTATTCTTAATTCCACATC (codons 14371526). Fragment 5: 5.1 forward ACTCCAGATGGATTTTTCTTG, reverse GGCTGGCTTTTTGCTTTAC (codons 14971596); 5.2 forward GAGCCTCGATGAGCCATTTA, reverse TGTTGGCATGGCAGAAATAA (codons 15091585).
PCR reaction mixtures (total volume 50 µl) contained 50 ng DNA (or 2 µl of the 1:100 diluted product of the first PCR), 0.2 µM both primers, 0.2 mM dNTPs, 10 mM TrisHCl, pH 9.0, 1.52.5 mM MgCl2, 50 mM KCl, 0.01% Tween, 10% glycerol and 0.3 U Taq DNA polymerase. Reaction conditions were: first PCR, 25 cycles of 30 s at 94°C, 45 s at 55°C (53°C for primer set 1.1; 57°C for 4.1), 1 min at 72°C, followed by 5 min at 72°C; second PCR, 30 cycles of 30 s at 94°C, 45 s at 52°C (56°C for primer sets 3.2 and 4.2; 57°C for 5.2), 1 min at 72°C, followed by 5 min at 72°C. Products were checked using an ethidium bromide stained 2% agarose gel. SSCP was performed as described earlier (24) with electrophoresis at 10 and 18°C. The original PCR products from the samples that displayed an abnormal pattern in the SSCP were subjected to sequencing in both directions using the same primers as in the second PCR. Sequencing was performed as described previously (24). Mutation analysis started in all samples with fragment 1 and only if no truncating mutations (i.e. nonsense or frameshift mutations) were detected was fragment 2 screened for mutations, and so on. We focused on truncating mutations because these mutations indisputably result in function loss of the APC protein whereas the biological significance of missense mutations in APC is uncertain. Carcinomas were classified as APC+ (with a truncating mutation in the extended MCR of APC) or APC (without a truncating mutation in the extended MCR of APC and all five fragments completely analyzed for mutations).
K-ras mutation detection
Codons 12 and 13 of the K-ras gene were examined for mutations (i.e. those resulting in an amino acid change) by mutant allele-specific amplification as described earlier (28).
p53 mutation detection
To enable the evaluation of (specific) p53 mutations, SSCP analysis was used to screen exons 58 of the p53 gene for mutations as described previously (24). We focused on exons 58 as it has been observed that most p53 mutations occur in this region of the gene (29). The original PCR products from the samples that displayed an abnormal pattern in the SSCP were subjected to sequencing in both directions. Samples in which a mutation (i.e. one that resulted in an amino acid change or truncation of the protein) was detected were excluded from analysis of the subsequent exons. The exons were screened in the following order: 7, 8, 5 and 6. Carcinomas were classified as p53+ (with a mutation in codons 58 of p53) or p53 (without a mutation in codons 58 of p53 and all four codons completely analyzed for mutations).
p53 immunohistochemistry
Overexpression of p53 was determined using a mixture of two antibodies (DO-7, which recognizes both mutant and wild-type forms of p53, and PAb 240, which recognizes only mutant forms of p53) as published earlier (24). Stained sections were scored independently by two investigators (A.A.van Kraats and G.N.P.van Muijen). Tumors were scored as p53neg if <20% of the cells displayed nuclear positivity and as p53 overexpression-positive (p53pos) if otherwise, as in Freedman et al. (19).
Microsatellite instability
For MSI analysis, paired tumor and normal DNA were investigated with the five Bethesda reference panel markers (30): BAT25, BAT26, D5S346, D2S123 and D17S250. PCR reaction mixtures (total volume 25 µl) contained 100 ng DNA, 10 pmol forward (fluorescent labeled) and reverse primers, 2.0 mM MgCl2 (2.5 mM MgCl2 for BAT26), 0.2 mM dNTPs, 75 mM TrisHCl, pH 9.0, 20 mM (NH4)2SO4, 0.01% Tween, 0.3 U Thermoperfect DNA polymerase (Integro). PCR reaction conditions were: 35 cycles of 30 s at 92°C, 45 s at 50°C, 1 min at 72°C, followed by 30 min at 72°C. Products were checked using an ethidium bromide stained 2% agarose gel. An aliquot of 1 µl of (diluted) PCR product was added to 10 µl of formamide and 0.5 µl of ROX-500 (size standard), denatured at 95°C for 5 min, chilled on ice and loaded on an ABI PRISM® 3100 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems). Genotyper® ABI PRISM version 3.5 NT (Perkin Elmer) was used to analyze the data. MSI at a specific marker was defined as the presence of a novel length allele in tumor tissue when compared with corresponding normal tissue. When matching normal DNA was not available (n = 22), only the mononucleotide repeat markers BAT25 and BAT26 were checked for instability. Tumors were classified as MSI-H if two or more markers showed instability, MSI-L if one marker showed instability and MSS if none of the markers examined showed instability (30).
Data analysis
The distribution of APC, K-ras and p53 mutations, p53 overexpression and MSI in the colon carcinomas was determined. Differences in (tumor) characteristics between never smoked and ever smoked cases and between MSI-H and MSS tumors were assessed using t-tests for continuous and 2 tests for categorical variables; P values <0.05 were considered significant. Casecase comparisons were conducted to evaluate heterogeneity in risk factors for the different tumor subsets. In addition, casecontrol comparisons, separately comparing cases with and cases without specific alterations with the population-based controls, were conducted to estimate the relative risk of developing carcinomas respectively with and without this particular status. The risk factors evaluated were: cigarette smoking status (never, ever), number of cigarettes usually smoked per day (never, <15,
15), total years of smoking (never,
30, >30) and years since first started smoking (never,
35, >35). Odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated using multiple logistic regression models. Never was always the referent category. All analyses were adjusted for age, sex, total energy and alcohol intake. Additional adjustment for Dukes stage, tumor location, body mass index and the consumption of vegetables, fruit and red meat did not change the estimates importantly (i.e. not more than 10%). All analyses were performed with the use of the SAS® statistical software package (SAS v.6.12; SAS Institute, Cary, NC).
![]() |
Results |
---|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
---|
|
|
Ever smoking was not associated with increased overall colon cancer risk in this study population (Table III). Table III
also shows the adjusted ORs and 95% CIs of the casecase and casecontrol comparisons for cigarette smoking status and the occurrence of the various genetic alterations examined in this study. No significant associations were observed between cigarette smoking status and tumor APC mutation status. Of the other cigarette smoking variables evaluated (i.e. usual number of cigarettes smoked per day, total years of smoking and years since first started), only first starting smoking
35 years ago was significantly differently associated with APC+ tumors compared to APC tumors (APC+ versus APC, OR 0.2, 95% CI 0.10.7; not in Table III
). In the casecontrol comparisons, first starting smoking
35 years ago was found to be significantly inversely associated with APC+ tumors only (APC+ versus controls, OR 0.2, 95% CI 0.10.8; APC versus controls, OR 1.2, 95% CI 0.62.3; not in Table III
). No associations were observed between first starting smoking >35 years ago and tumor APC mutation status.
|
Ever smoking was significantly differently associated with p53pos tumors compared to p53neg tumors (Table III). The casecontrol comparisons showed that ever smoking was inversely associated with p53pos tumors and positively, although not statistically significant, associated with p53neg tumors. Evaluation of the other cigarette smoking variables provided additional support that, in this population, cigarette smoking is inversely associated with p53pos tumors. Smoking
15 cigarettes/day, smoking >30 years and first starting smoking >35 years ago were significantly differently associated with p53pos tumors compared to p53neg tumors (p53pos versus p53neg, OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.21.0, OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.10.7 and OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.21.0, respectively; not in Table III
). Additionally, all were inversely associated with p53pos tumors and positively with p53neg tumors when compared to the population-based controls (p53pos versus controls, OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.21.0, OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.20.9 and OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.31.3, respectively; p53neg versus controls, OR, 1.4, 95% CI 0.72.8, OR 1.6, 95% CI 0.83.1 and OR 1.7, 95% CI 0.93.2, respectively; not in Table III
). Interestingly, no clear associations were observed between cigarette smoking and tumor p53 mutation status.
To evaluate whether cigarette smoking was specifically associated with the presence of transversion mutations, we additionally assessed the associations between smoking and carcinomas with transversion mutations in APC, K-ras or p53 (transv+ tumors). The majority of the transv+ tumors harbored, at least, a transversion mutation in K-ras. Ever smoking was significantly differently associated with tumors with transversion mutations compared to tumors without transversion mutations (Table III). The casecontrol comparisons showed that ever smoking was positively, although not statistically significant, associated with tumors with transversion mutations and negatively, again not statistically significantly, with tumors without transversion mutations. Similar patterns were observed for the other smoking variables evaluated (data not shown). No clear associations were observed between smoking and tumors with transition mutations in APC, K-ras or p53 (Table III
).
Regarding MSI, no clear associations were observed between the smoking variables examined and MSI status (Table III). In addition, no clear associations were observed when the analyses were repeated with the subset MSI-L/MSS instead of MSS (data not shown).
![]() |
Discussion |
---|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
---|
Truncating APC mutations were identified in 34.1%, K-ras mutations in 36.4%, p53 mutations in 30.7% and p53 overexpression in 44.3% of the carcinomas in this study. Twenty-two percent of the carcinomas were MSI-H and the occurrence of MSI was significantly inversely related to the presence of genetic alterations in the APC, K-ras and p53 genes and to p53 overexpression. Microdissection was performed and the observed frequencies and characteristics of the mutations identified were consistent with those in comparable populations previously reported by others (APC database, http://perso.curie.fr/Thierry.Soussi/APC/html; IARC p53 database, http://www.iarc.fr/p53/index.html; 46,13,19,20,25,26). However, it remains possible that, due to contaminating normal DNA, alterations were missed, eventually resulting in misclassifications, which in turn may have attenuated some of our results.
In this study the MSI status of 22 tumors was determined using BAT25 and BAT26 tumor results only as for these tumors matching normal DNA was not available. The markers were either both unstable or both stable. Recently, polymorphisms have been identified in BAT25 as well as in BAT26, disputing the earlier suggested quasimonomorphic allelic profile of these two loci and warranting caution in the interpretation of MSI data based on BAT25 and BAT26 tumor results only (31,32). However, the polymorphisms appear to be population dependent and to occur significantly more frequently in African-Americans than in Caucasians (31,32). In the latter, they truly seem to be uncommon, and being polymorphic at both loci will most likely be even more uncommon. Therefore, we do not expect that our decision to use BAT25 and BAT26 tumor results only, when matching normal DNA was not available, has resulted in extensive misclassification or led to serious misinterpretation of our data.
As in any retrospective study, an important concern is the possibility of information and selection bias. The smoking habits of our controls were comparable to those of the general Dutch population at the time of interview (33). Since the cases were unaware of the molecular profile of their tumors, systematic errors in recall are less likely to bias results from casecase comparisons. Recall of (smoking) habits, however, can also be influenced by tumor stage or treatments. Our cases were relatively healthy, i.e. the frequency of Dukes A and B tumors among the cases was relatively high, 63%, compared with the 51% reported by the Dutch Cancer Registry (34). Adjusting the casecase comparisons for Dukes stage did not change the estimates significantly. A long time lag between smoking exposure and occurrence of colon carcinomas has previously been suggested as a possible explanation for smoking being a risk factor for adenomas but not for colon cancer (35,36). In our study population 72% of the ever smokers among the cases first started smoking 35 years ago.
This is, to our knowledge, the first study that has evaluated associations between cigarette smoking and alterations in the APC gene in sporadic colon carcinomas. If anything, our data suggest a slight inverse association between the two; it seems that most sporadic colon cancers related to smoking are not initiated via alterations in the APC gene. This is not entirely unexpected considering that the frequency of APC mutations observed in sporadic adenomas is similar to that in sporadic carcinomas (4) and that APC appears to also play a role in the later stages of tumor development (37,38).
A few studies have previously looked at cigarette smoking and other genetic alterations in colon tumors. In a large population-based casecontrol study on sporadic colon cancer, Slattery et al. (6) observed a slight increased risk of K-ras tumors when smoking 20 cigarettes/day (K-ras versus controls, OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.11.6). However, the risk of K-ras+ tumors increased as well (K-ras+ versus controls, OR 1.2, 95% CI 0.91.5). Additionally, smoking >20 cigarettes/day was associated with an increased risk of overall colon cancer in their study population (39). In line with our results for K-ras, Martinez et al. (40) reported a slight positive, but non-significant, association with K-ras mutations in 0.5 cm or larger sporadic colorectal adenomas for current versus never smokers.
In the study population of Slattery et al., cigarette smoking was found to be positively associated with microsatellite unstable tumors (20). Yang et al. (21), who purposely enriched their study for MSI-H cases, also reported a positive association between cigarette smoking and MSI-H tumors. We observed no clear associations between smoking and MSI-H tumors and, hence, did not confirm their results. Both Slattery et al. and Yang et al. did not use the Bethesda reference panel (30) to assess MSI, which may explain the difference in results. Additionally, it is possible that we observed no associations due to the size of our study population and/or because the frequency of heavy smokers among our smokers was lower. Similarly to our results, Slattery et al. reported an inverse relation between K-ras mutations and MSI (13,20).
We observed no clear associations with p53 mutations but our results for p53 overexpression suggest that most colon cancers related to cigarette smoking develop through a p53neg pathway (which is not necessarily also p53 mutation-negative; see below). Consistent with our findings for p53 overexpression, Freedman et al. (19) observed an increased risk of p53neg colon tumors for current and former smokers. They did not evaluate p53 mutations. Although p53 overexpression is often used as an indicator of p53 mutations, not all p53 mutations (e.g. nonsense and frameshift mutations) result in the accumulation of inactive p53 protein and can be detected by immunohistochemical analysis (41). In our population for instance, 20% of the p53 mutations resulted in p53neg tumors. Under normal circumstances, wild-type p53 is activated and accumulates in response to DNA damage and various other types of stress, resulting in either growth arrest or apoptosis (42). Cancer cells need to somehow circumvent this checkpoint to be able to proliferate. A possible explanation for the observed association with a p53neg pathway is that cigarette smoking can somehow (e.g. by preventing post-translational modifications to occur) suppress the induction or stabilization of wild-type p53 (resulting in p53neg cells), allowing cells to proliferate in conditions where cells with intact p53 function are eliminated.
Interestingly, we observed a positive association between cigarette smoking and tumors with transversion mutations in APC, K-ras or p53. This suggests that cigarette smoking is particularly involved in the production of transversion mutations in colon cells. However, it should be noted that genetic alterations in tumors not only represent the interactions of carcinogens with DNA repair processes but also reflect the, possibly tissue-specific, selection of those mutations that provide pre-malignant and malignant cells with a clonal growth advantage. Consistent with our results, transversion mutations in p53 and K-ras are also commonly found in smoking-related lung cancers (1518). Additionally, Conway et al. (43) reported recently that p53 transversion mutations, and especially GT transversions, were significantly more prevalent in breast tumors from current smokers than in breast tumors from never smokers.
To conclude, our data suggest that smoking-related colon cancers develop through a p53neg pathway and that cigarette smoking particularly results in colon tumor cells with transversion mutations. Regarding the latter, it appears that cigarette smoking especially results in colon tumors with K-ras transversion mutations. This may be due to hypersensitivity of codons 12 and 13 of K-ras for exposure to tobacco smoke carcinogens or to a higher selective advantage for colon tumor formation exerted by these mutations in K-ras than in one of the other genes examined. Our results, if confirmed in other studies, provide support for the hypothesis that cigarette smoking is primarily associated with specific colon tumor subgroups.
![]() |
Notes |
---|
![]() |
Acknowledgments |
---|
![]() |
References |
---|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
---|