ABSTRACT
Objective To detect the expression of melanoma antigen-1 gene (MAGE-l),melanoma antigen-3 gene (MAGE-3) and explore their clinical significance. Methods The expression of MAGE-1 and MAGE-3 in central tumor tissue, para-tumorous normal mucosa and tissue of resection-border were detected by RT-PCR. Results The expression of MAGE-1 was positive in 10 out of 33 (30.30 %) cases of rectal cancer, 4 out of 33 cases (12.12%) and 4 out of 33 cases (12.12 %) in para-tumorous normal mucosa and tissue of resection-border respectively; the expression of MAGE-3 was positive in 14 out of 33(42.42 %) eases of rectal cancer, 6 out of 33 cases (18.18 % ) and 5 out of 33 cases (15.15 %) in para-tumorous normal mucosa and tissue of resection-border respectively; 7 out of 33 cases (21.21%) was expressed MAGE-1 and MAGE-3 simutaneously; 17 out of 33 cases (51.51%) was expressed at least one of MAGE-1 and MAGE-3;the positive rates of MAGE-1 or MAGE-3 in center tumor tissue were significant higher than those of its para-tumorous and resection-border (P＜0.05). The expression of MAGE-1 or MAGE-3 was not related to age, sex, histological grades, metastasis to lymph nodes, duke stages (P＞0.05). Conclusion As their significance, MAGE-1, MAGE-3 protein may be used as a target molecule of immunotherapy for rectal cancer and indexes for follow-up study of rectal cancer as well.