Expression Of C-kit In Thymic Tumors

Background:So many reasons for thymoma such as low incidence and slow progression, pathological type complex,many classification methods, both under the microscope the complex structure and contradiction of pathology and prognosis,few prospective randomized controlled clinical experimental research, lead clinicians lack of knowledge of thymoma.It is a fact that there is controversial about reasonable pathological classification and treatment modalities.The study showed that the c-kit receptor expresses in the occurrence and development of lung cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, gynecological cancer, hematopoietic tumors, melanoma and other human tumor. The expression of level of c-kit receptor protein has relationship with the degree of malignancy, biological characteristics, resistance to chemotherapy and prognosis. the c-kit receptor has potential applications in clinical diagnosis and treatment, c-kit is becoming a hot spot for the new mode of targeted therapy targeting.Objective:To investigate the expression of c-kit in the normal thymus organizations, thymoma, thymic carcinoma, and its clinical significance, to explore the possible role of which c-kit can play in the development of thymic carcinoma, looking for a reliable molecular markers that can distinguish between the nature of thymic tumors, and provide the basis for new targeted therapy targeting mode as c-kit malignancies applications in thymic.Methods:Select the56cases of patients with thymoma which were admitted in Thoracic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January2010to June2012.A11the56cases with no preoperative chemotherapy and radiation therapy or other treatments.56patients,22men and34women with a mean age of46.2years (8-67years old).24cases of all the patients with myasthenia gravis. All pathological specimens were reclassified according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the pathological classification criteria and Masaoka clinical Staging classification.To detect the expression of c-kit with Immunohistochemical methods in normal thymic tissue, thymoma and thymic carcinoma, and analysis the final data.Results:There is no expression of c-kit protein in normal thymic tissue, The positive expression rate of c-kit protein in thymic carcinoma is significantly higher than the expression in thymoma, and the difference is statistically significant (P<0.05).The c-kit protein expression in thymus tumors is associated with the World Health Organization (WHO) pathological classification,and has no significantly associated with thymoma of Masaoka clinical stage.Conclusion:1. There is no expression of c-kit protein in normal thymic tissue. Positive expression is obvious differences in WHO classification of thymoma and thymic carcinoma,which indicating that the c-kit is a good molecular markers to identify thymoma and thymic carcinoma. 2.1t is important for patients with thymoma to look for an effective therapeutic targets for targeted therapy. Further study on thymic carcinoma of c-kit mutation is an important research direction in the future.