Wilms’ Tumor 1

Wilms’ Tumor 1 (WT1) is a transcription factor with zinc finger structure. It has dual functions with transcription activation and transcription repression to regulate cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. WT1 gene was initially discovered to be a tumor suppressor gene in nephroblastoma, which can inhibit cancer cell growth by blocking proliferation signaling. Meanwhile, WT1 can assist in the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma, and its low expression was considered as an indicator of poor prognosis in patients. But further research found that WT1 is highly expressed in leukemia, lung cancer, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and other cancers, and it is related to the occurrence, development and drug resistance of tumors, indicating that WT1 has tumor promoting effect, which may be because WT1 can activate proto-oncogenes and anti-apoptosis genes, and stimulate tumor angiogenesis by up-regulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin. In addition, WT1 is only strongly expressed in serous ovarian carcinoma among all types of ovarian cancer, which makes it become a differential biomarker.