PLoS ONE (Jan 2014)

Colorectal advanced neoplasms occur through dual carcinogenesis pathways in individuals with coexisting serrated polyps.

  • Atsushi Yamada,
  • Sachiko Minamiguchi,
  • Yoshiharu Sakai,
  • Takahiro Horimatsu,
  • Manabu Muto,
  • Tsutomu Chiba,
  • C Richard Boland,
  • Ajay Goel

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098059
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 5
p. e98059

Abstract

Read online

Individuals with serrated polyps (SP) are at higher risk for synchronous colorectal advanced neoplasms (AN) and cancers. However, it remains unclear whether there is a unique involvement of the serrated pathway and/or the classical adenoma-carcinoma sequence in this setting.Colorectal ANs, which include tubular adenomas ≥ 10 mm, adenomas with villous histology, high-grade intraepithelial neoplasms, and cancers, were collected retrospectively. The groups included ANs with (AN+SP) or without (AN-only) coexisting SPs. Clinicopathological findings were compared between groups. BRAF and KRAS mutations in ANs and SPs, and methylation levels at long interspersed element-1 (LINE-1) in adjacent mucosa were determined by pyrosequencing.Seventy-five ANs from 40 patients in the AN+SP group, and 179 ANs from 119 patients in the AN-only group were analyzed. There were no significant differences in clinicopathological findings between the two groups, except that intraepithelial neoplasia in the AN+SP group was more likely to be located in the right colon (P=0.018). BRAF mutations were significantly more frequent in the AN+SP group (P=0.003), while KRAS mutations showed no significant differences between groups (P=0.142). The majority of high-grade intraepithelial neoplasms in both groups showed a contiguous component of conventional adenoma. Individuals with large and right-sided SPs had significantly more conventional adenomas compared to those without such SPs (P=0.027 and P=0.031, respectively). Adjacent mucosa from individuals with multiple and large SPs showed significantly lower methylation levels at LINE-1 compared to individuals without such associated SPs (P=0.049 and P=0.015, respectively).Our data suggest that both the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and the serrated pathway are operational in individuals with coexisting ANs and SPs. The reduced methylation levels at LINE-1 in the background mucosa suggest the possibility of an underlying 'field defect'.