Elevated c-Src and c-Yes expression in malignant skin cancers.

BACKGROUND: Src family kinases (SFKs) play an important role in cancer proliferation, survival, motility, invasiveness, metastasis, and angiogenesis. Among the SFKs, c-Src and c-Yes are particularly over-expressed or hyper-activated in many human epithelial cancers. However, only a few studies have attempted to define the expression and role of c-Src and c-Yes in cutaneous carcinomas. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the expression of c-Src and c-Yes in cutaneous carcinomas to include malignant melanoma (MM), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC). METHODS: We examined 6 normal skin tissues and 18 malignant skin tumor tissues using western blotting for the expression of c-Src and c-Yes. In another set, 16 specimens of MM, 16 SCCs and 16 BCCs were analyzed for the expression of c-Src and c-Yes using immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: Western blotting showed that c-Src was expressed in all malignant skin tumors, but not in normal skin, while c-Yes was expressed in MM and SCC, but not in BCC and normal skin. Immunohistochemical staining results of c-Src and c-Yes in MM, SCC, and BCC mirrored those of the western blot analysis. CONCLUSIONS: c-Src, rather than c-Yes, plays a key role in the proliferation and progression of malignant skin cancers.