Oncogenic role of the Wilms' tumor gene in tumorigenesis of lung cancer

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We have previously demonstrated that wild-type Wilms' tumor gene (WT1) is expressed at high levels in both leukemic blast cells and various types of solid tumor cell lines and the growth of these cells was inhibited by the treatment with WT1 antisense oligomers. In the present project, we examined WT1 gene expression in fresh lung cancer tissues and in matched normal lung tissues from 20 patients with lung cancer (14 with adenocaricinoma, 6 with squamous-cell carcinoma) by Real time RT-PCR method. We demonstrated that the WT1 gene was expressed in most of lung cancer tissues examined. The levels of WT1 expression in lung cancer tissues were 10-3000 times higher than that in normal lung tissues. Furthermore, we identified WT1 gene product as a novel tumor antigen of leukemia. These results suggest that oncogenic role of WT1 in tumorigenesis of lung cancer and the possibility that WT1 protein could serve as a target protein for tumor-specific immunity.