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Clinical and Developmental Immunology
Volume 2010 (2010), Article ID 170432, 13 pages
doi:10.1155/2010/170432
Current Hypotheses on How Microsatellite Instability Leads to Enhanced Survival of Lynch Syndrome Patients
1Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE 68178, USA
2Department of Pathology, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE 68178, USA
3Department of Preventative Medicine, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE 68178, USA
Received 8 January 2010; Accepted 13 April 2010
Academic Editor: C. Pauza
Copyright © 2010 Kristen M. Drescher et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
High levels of microsatellite instability (MSI-high) are a cardinal feature of colorectal tumors from patients with Lynch Syndrome. Other key characteristics of Lynch Syndrome are that these patients experience fewer metastases and have enhanced survival when compared to patients diagnosed with microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal cancer. Many of the characteristics associated with Lynch Syndrome including enhanced survival are also observed in patients with sporadic MSI-high colorectal cancer. In this review we will present the current state of knowledge regarding the mechanisms that are utilized by the host to control colorectal cancer in Lynch Syndrome and why these same mechanisms fail in MSS colorectal cancers.