Marech I, Ammendola M, Gadaleta C, Zizzo N, Oakley C, Gadaleta CD, Ranieri G. Possible biological and translational significance of mast cells density in colorectal cancer. World J Gastroenterol 2014; 20(27): 8910-8920 [PMID: 25083063 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i27.8910]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Girolamo Ranieri, MD, Interventional Radiology Unit with Integrated Section of Translational Medical Oncology, National Cancer Research Centre Istituto Tumori “Giovanni Paolo II”, Via Orazio Flacco 65, 70124 Bari, Italy. giroran@tiscalinet.it
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Topic Highlight
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Ilaria Marech, Caroline Oakley, Cosmo Damiano Gadaleta, Girolamo Ranieri, Interventional Radiology Unit with Integrated Section of Translational Medical Oncology, National Cancer Research Centre Istituto Tumori “Giovanni Paolo II”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Michele Ammendola, Department of Clinical Surgery, University of Catanzaro “Magna Graecia” Medical School, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Claudia Gadaleta, Nicola Zizzo, Department of Pathology, Veterinary Medical School, University of Bari, Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy
Author contributions: Marech I, Gadaleta CD and Ranieri G ideated the manuscript and performed a critical review of the literature; Ammendola M, Gadaleta C and Zizzo N contributed to literature research and data analysis; Oakley C edited the manuscript; all authors wrote the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Girolamo Ranieri, MD, Interventional Radiology Unit with Integrated Section of Translational Medical Oncology, National Cancer Research Centre Istituto Tumori “Giovanni Paolo II”, Via Orazio Flacco 65, 70124 Bari, Italy. giroran@tiscalinet.it
Telephone: +39-80-5555561 Fax: +39-80-5555563
Received: September 23, 2013 Revised: January 24, 2014 Accepted: April 21, 2014 Published online: July 21, 2014 Processing time: 301 Days and 12 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: In several malignancies it has been well demonstrated that mast cell (MC), activated c-Kit receptor (c-KitR) and tryptase secreted after MC degranulation play a pivotal role in tumor angiogenesis, helping tumor cell invasion and metastasis. The close relationship between MC density, angiogenesis and tumor progression could suggest a role for MCs as a possible prognostic factor in colorectal cancer (CRC). Moreover, considering MC-mediated CRC development, c-KitR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (imatinib, masitinib) and tryptase inhibitors (gabexate and nafamostat mesylate) could be used to block MC activation/degranulation and the tryptase/proteinase-activated receptor-2 axis respectively, and may be evaluated in future clinical trials in CRC patients.
