Lgr4在胃肠道肿瘤中的研究进展

Research progress of Lgr4 in gastrointestinal carcinomas

胃肠道肿瘤是世界上发病率和死亡率最高的的肿瘤之一，近年来发病率呈增高趋势，很大一部分患者在确诊时已进入晚期，至今仍没有一种能在早期筛选患癌高风险人群的可靠的标记物。有研究认为，Lgr4在胃肠道肿瘤中阳性表达率较高，Lgr4被建议用于胃肠道肿瘤的诊断、鉴别诊断及预后判断中。Lgr4是G蛋白耦联受体家族成员之一，介导Wnt信号通路，在多种器官的发生发展中起重要作用。近年来，有研究发现Lgr4与结直肠癌及胃癌等胃肠道肿瘤的发生、发展密切相关，本文就Lgr4在胃肠道肿瘤中的研究进展作一概述。

Gastrointestinal carcinomas, whose incidence increases in recent years, are among the malignancies with highest morbidity and mortality. Many patients are always advanced stages when having diagnosis. So far, there are no any reliable tumor biomarkers which are able to screen people with high risk of developing cancer. Studies have shown that the expression level of Lgr4 is high in gastrointestinal carcinomas and Lgr4 is useful in diagnosis, differential diagnosis and prognosis judgment of these carcinomas. Lgr4 belongs to the G-protein- coupled receptors family. Its function is to potentiate Writ signaling and plays an important role in the development of multiple organs. Recent studies find that Lgr4 has close relationship with the development of many gastrointestinal carcinomas, such as gastric cancer and colorectal cancer （CRC）. In this article we review recent progress in understanding the relationship between Lgr4 and gastrointestinal carcinomas.