Frequent polymorphic changes but rare tumor specific mutations of the LATS2 gene on 13q11-12 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

We previously reported that loss of heterozygosity on 13q12-13 is related with poor prognosis of esophageal cancer. However, a target tumor-suppressor gene on this region is not yet identified. Recently, LATS2, a new human homologue of the Drosophila tumor suppressor gene (lats/warts) was identified on 13q11-12. We therefore screened esophageal tumor cell lines and tumor tissues to detect tumor specific mutations of the LATS2 gene. Although we found 5 different polymorphisms in this gene (4 kinds of single-base changes and a 6-bp insertion), a tumor specific mutation was identified in only one out of 60 tumor tissues. These results indicated that the LATS2 gene is inactivated in only a small part of esophageal tumors, if any.