AIMS AND BACKGROUND: The Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway is one of the main 
carcinogenic mechanisms in human malignancies including prostate cancer. 
Recently, the DVL1 gene was identified as a middle molecule of the 
Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway. In addition, alterations of the DVL1 gene 
have been reported in breast and cervical cancer. The abnormality of 
beta-catenin in prostate cancer has been well studied, so the examination of the 
DVL1 gene in prostate cancer is appealing.
METHODS: We investigated DVL1 messenger RNA alterations by semiquantitative PCR 
(SQ-PCR) in 20 primary prostate cancers and assessed the protein expression by 
immunohistochemical analysis in the same samples. In addition, DVL1 and 
beta-catenin protein expression was evaluated with a new validated set of 20 
prostate cancers.
RESULTS: SQ-PCR revealed significant overexpression of DVL1 in prostate cancer 
(65%). Upregulation of the DVL1 gene product in prostate cancer was confirmed by 
immunostaining. With SQ-PCR and immunostaining, none of the cases showed 
underexpression or downregulation of DVL1. In addition, the data showed 
correlations between DVL1 mRNA and protein expression. Interestingly, the 
expression level of DVL1 increased with worsening histological grade. In 
addition, a correlation between DVL1 expression and beta-catenin expression was 
confirmed.
CONCLUSIONS: DVL1 was overexpressed in prostate cancer and its overexpression 
might be related to prostate cancer progression through the Wnt/beta-catenin 
pathway.