Detection of K-ras oncogen mutation in codon 13 of CRC patients in East-North of Iran

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in the world. Amongseveral genetic events which have been documented in colorectal tumour progression, K-ras hashigh diagnostic value. Studies have shown that K-ras mutations are found in 20-50% of all coloncancers mostly in codons 12 and 13, and less frequently in codon 61.The aim of the present studyis to identify K-ras gene mutations in codon 13 in CRC patients among the East-North of IRAN, and toassess whether they are linked to the clinicopathological parameters. Tumorsamples were collected from a consecutive series of 54 patients undergone respective surgery for CRC.DNA was extracted from tumour and RFLP-PCR was applied for codon 13 mutation detection.The results reveal that 18.51% of the patients (10/54) have the mutation in the K-ras gene-codon 13. In the present study, K-ras mutations were significantly associated with CRC stage (P <0.05). No significant correlations were found between the mutations and sex, grade and tumor location.Conclution: The research shows that mutations in K-ras gene-codon 13 have a significant role in tumor type cell progression in CRC patients; therefore, screening for K-ras mutations appears to have a high prognostic value for evaluating of the risk of the tumor progression.