Relationship between K-ras mutation and the expression of p21WAF1/CIP1 and p53 in chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Overexpression of p21WAF1/CIP1wasrecently discribed as an early event in the development of pancreatic intraepihelial neoplasia. Since activating K-ras mutation are described in more than 80% of pancreatic cancers and are known to increase intracellular levels of p21WAF1/CIP1 in experimental models, the posible role of activating K-ras mutations in an induction of the p21WAF1/CIP1 expression was investigated in our study.