A crucial role for the adenomatous polyposis colonic (APC) gene in colorectal carcinogenesis has been conclusively established, but, the role of APC in gastric tumors remains controversial. APC mutations have been detected at a relatively high frequency in gastric tumors of Japanese patients, yet such mutations have been reported to be extremely rare in British patients and patients from north-central-Italy. We here report the analysis of 40 primary sporadic gastric adenocarcinomas and 35 primary sporadic colon adenocarcinomas (from patients resident in São Paulo, Brazil), for mutations in the APC gene between codons 686 and 1693 using the protein truncation test. Although 19 truncating mutations were detected in 35 colon adenocarcinomas (54.2%) none were... |