Identification of the c-kit gene mutations in biopsy tissues of mammary gland carcinoma tumor

C-kit gene is a transmembrane tyrosine kinase that acts as type iii receptor for mast cell growth factor and cellular migration,proliferation,survival of melanoblasts,haematopoietic progenitors and primordial germ cells. apart from the scant information about the pathologies associated with loss-of-function mutations,few reports have proposed role of the c-kit gene in case of carcinogenesis. apparently,in breast cancer the involvement of c-kit gene mutations has been considered as a rare phenomenon. thus,we designed our study with aim to investigate the c-kit gene mutation in breast cancer,and their correlation with clinico-pathological findings. we performed mutational analysis of the c-kit gene in 58 cases of malignant breast cancer. with the aim to ascertain the variety of mutations at exon 8,9,11,13,15 and17 of c-kit gene in breast cancer,we have done pcr-sscp followed by dna sequencing. in breast cancer the c-kit gene mutation rates were 3.44% (02/58) in exon 8,5.17% (3/58) in exon 9,5.17% (3/58) in exon 11,3.44% (2/580 in exon 13,3.44% (2/58) in exon 15 and 5.17% (3/58) in exon 17,respectively. the overall c-kit mutation frequency in exons 8,9,11,13,15 and 17 was determined to be 25.86% (15/58). our study indicates to specify the role of c-kit proto-oncogene mutation in breast cancer. the result signifies that c-kit gene plays a poor role in prognosis of ductal and lobular carcinoma. © 2011 national cancer institute,cairo university.