Immunohistochemical expression of survivin and Bcl-2 in prostatic adenocarcinoma

ABSTRACT

The present work was carried out to detect the expression of survivin and Bcl-2 in twenty cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma, and to determine its correlation with the different clinicopathologic parameters including age of the patient, serum prostate -specific antigen [PSA] level, clinical stage and Gleason score. Positive staining for both survivin and Bcl-2 was seen as brown cytoplasmic staining. A semiquantitative method based on both intensity and distribution of staining was used to score immunohistochemical positivity. 75% and 35% of the studied cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma showed positive staining for survivin and Bcl-2 respectively. 20% of cases showed concomitant expression of both survivin and Bcl-2. Expression of survivin alone was detected in 55% of cases, while 15% of cases expressed Bcl-2 only. No correlation was found between survivin and Bcl-2 expression [p=0.176]. A significant association was detected between survivin expression and the Gleason score of prostatic adenocarcinoma, where p=0.004. Another significant correlation was found between Bcl-2 expression and the tumor stage [p=0.007]. Overexpression of survivin and Bcl-2 in prostatic adenocarcinoma indicate their possible role in tumorigenicity and/or tumor progression. A definite correlation was found between survivin expression and the Gleason score of prostatic adenocarcinoma. In addition,a significant correlation was detected between Bcl-2 expression and tumor stage. Survivin and Bcl-2 may serve as targets for apoptosis-based therapy of prostatic adenocarcinoma