DDR2 polymorphisms and mRNA expression in lung cancers of Japanese patients.

Discoidin domain receptor 2, DDR2, is a tyrosine kinase receptor for fibrillar collagen that is involved in postnatal development, tissue repair and primary and metastatic cancer progression. Recently, mutations in the DDR2 kinase gene were identified in squamous cell lung cancer from large-scale Sanger sequencing. The present study investigated the DDR2 gene mutations and mRNA expression in surgically treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of squamous histology cases. The presence or absence of DDR2 mutations at the kinase and discoidin domain was analyzed by direct sequencing. In this cohort, DDR2 mutations were not observed in the 166 patients with lung cancer, although DDR2 polymorphisms were observed (H136H, n=14) at the discoidin domain. mRNA levels of DDR2 in lung tumor samples and the adjacent normal lung samples were simultaneously analyzed. DDR2 mRNA levels were significantly decreased in tumor samples compared with normal lung samples. However, the DDR2 mRNA levels were elevated in the DDR2 polymorphism cases.