Global gene expression analysis of development and progression of colorectal carcinoma

Colorectal cancer (CRC) tumorigenesis proceedes through well defined clinical stages assoicated with charateristic mutations. To get a better understanding of CRC progression at the transcriptional level, we performed transcriptome profiling on samples from normal colonic tissues, pre-malignant adenomas, carcinomas and metatases. We used Affymatrix microarry to get a broad view of gene expression during colorectal cancer progression and identified significantly differentially expressed genes between different stages A total of 58 laser capture micro-dissected tissues that cover the major stages of colorectal cancer progression were collected from the Department of Pathology at the University of Virginia under the supervision of an experienced pathologist. DNA was extracted and run on Affymetrix microarrys. Gene-expression profiles were collected on Affymetrix HG-U133A GeneChips according to the manufacturer’s instructions.