Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. May 27, 2024; 16(5): 1395-1406
Published online May 27, 2024. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v16.i5.1395
Mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor amplification correlates with adverse pathological features and poor clinical outcome in colorectal cancer
Qiu-Xiao Yu, Ping-Ying Fu, Chi Zhang, Li Li, Wen-Ting Huang
Qiu-Xiao Yu, Ping-Ying Fu, Chi Zhang, Li Li, Wen-Ting Huang, Department of Pathology, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital & Shenzhen Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Shenzhen 518116, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Yu QX and Li L designed the research study; Yu QX performed the research; Fu PY and Zhang C contributed new reagents and analytic tools; Yu QX analyzed the data; Yu QX and Huang WT wrote the manuscript; and all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82002829.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of Shenzhen Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Approval No. KYLX2023-107).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wen-Ting Huang, MD, Chief, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Pathology, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital & Shenzhen Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 113 Baohe Avenue, Longgang District, Shenzhen 518116, Guangdong Province, China. huangwt@cicams.ac.cn
Received: January 10, 2024
Revised: February 22, 2024
Accepted: April 11, 2024
Published online: May 27, 2024
Processing time: 134 Days and 9.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study aimed to investigate pathological significance of mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET) amplification in therapy-naïve colorectal cancer (CRC) and to propose a feasible screening strategy in clinical practice. In CRC harboring no RAS/RAF mutation or microsatellite instability, focal MET amplification was a rare event, while polysomy-caused MET amplification was observed in 14.4% of patients. Polysomy-caused MET amplification significantly correlated with frequent lymph node metastasis and higher tumor budding grade, which were two independent predictors of unfavorable CRC survival. Consistently, we discovered that MET amplification predicted poor outcome in a two-year follow-up. To our knowledge, this study firstly proved that c-MET immunohistochemistry (IHC) was not a suitable screening tool for MET amplification in CRC, and we recommend that tissue should be prioritized for fluorescence in situ hybridization over IHC to determine MET amplification.