[Expression of cluster of differentiation 74 in prostate cancer and its clinical significance].

OBJECTIVE: To study the expression of cluster of differentiation 74 (CD74) in PCa and its clinical significance. METHODS: Using immunohistochemical staining, we detected the expression of CD74 in 56 samples of PCa tissue and 55 samples of the adjacent BPH tissue. RESULTS: The rates of CD74 expression in the epithelial and stromal cells were 48.2% and 82.3% in the PCa tissue compared with 62.7% and 83.6% in the adjacent BPH tissue, with statistically significant difference between the two types of cells (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01), and those in the stromal cells of the PCa tissue with Gleason score ≤7 or >7 were 44.0% versus 80.8% (P < 0.05), while those in the epithelial cells of the PCa tissue with Gleason score ≤7 or >7 were 36.7% versus 61.5% (P > 0.01). CD74 was overexpressed in the poorly differentiated PCa cells and the surrounding stromal cells. CONCLUSIONS: CD74 may play an important role in the development and invasiveness of PCa, and is expected to be a prognostic indicator of the malignancy.

[Expressions of TFF1 and TFF3 in prostate cancer and prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and their clinical significance].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expressions of trefoil factor 1 (TFF1) and trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) in prostate cancer (PCa) and prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and their clinical significance. METHODS: Using immunohistochemistry, we detected the expressions of TFF1 and TFF3 in the prostatic tissues of 89 cases of PCa, 50 cases of PIN, and 65 cases of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), and evaluated their clinical significance. RESULTS: The positive rates of TFF1 and TFF3 expressions were 77. 53% and 48. 31% in PCa and 66.00% and 30.00% in PIN, significantly higher than 49.23% and 13. 85% in BPH (P <0. 05). The expression of TFF1 was not correlated with Gleason score (P >0. 05), while that of TFF3 was significantly higher in the PCa cases with Gleason score ≤7 than in those with Gleason score > 7 (70. 00% vs 42. 03%, P <0. 05). No significant correlation was observed between TFF1 and TFF3 expressions in PCa (P >0. 05). CONCLUSION: The expressions of TFF1 and TFF3 may contribute to the occurrence and progression of PCa, and therefore could be used as laboratory indexes in the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and prognosis of PCa.

[Expression of the epithelial cell adhesion molecule in prostate cancer and its clinical significance].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression of the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) in prostate cancer (PCa) and its clinical significance. METHODS: We collected tissue samples from 63 cases of PCa, 46 cases of prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN), and 58 cases of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) adjacent to PCa and determined the expression of EpCAM in the epithelial and stromal cells by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The positive expression rates of EpCAM in the epithelial cells were significantly higher in PCa and PIN than in PCa-adjacent BPH (98. 4 and 97. 8 vs 51.7%, P <0. 01), and so was that in the stromal cells of PCa than in those of PCa-adjacent PIN (89.5 vs 50.0%, P <0.01). The expression of EpCAM.was remarkably higher in the stromal cells of bone metastasis than in those of non-bone metastasis tissue (100. 0 vs 40. 0%, P <0. 01) but showed no statistically significant differences between the highly and poorly differentiated PCa tissues (88.5 vs 91.9%, P >0.05). CONCLUSION: The expression level of EpCAM in the stromal cells of PCa is related to the occurrence, progression, and bone metastasis of the tumor, and therefore may be used as a marker in the early diagnosis of PCa as well as a predictor of bone metastasis of the tumor.

Downregulation of glutathione peroxidase 3 is associated with lymph node metastasis and prognosis in cervical cancer.

Glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3) is a member of the glutathione peroxidase family of selenoproteins and is one of the key defensive enzymes against oxidative damages to host cells. Downregulation of GPX3 due to its promoter hypermethylation has been documented in several different types of cancer, indicating that GPX3 functions as a possible tumor suppressor. In the present study, we showed that GPX3 is also significantly downregulated in cervical cancer tissues compared to normal cervical tissues by qRT-PCR analyses and immunohistostainings. GPX3 expression was significantly related to lymph node metastasis and prognosis in cervical cancer patients. Treatment of cervical cancer cells with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine restored the expression of GPX3 and methylation-specific PCR (MSP) confirmed the CpG methylation of the GPX3 gene. Our results indicate that promoter methylation is one of the major causes of GPX3 downregulation in cervical cancer and GPX3 could serve as a predictive biomarker for lymph node metastasis and prognosis of cervical cancer.

Clinicopathological significance of DEK overexpression in serous ovarian tumors.

To investigate the significance of DEK protein expression in ovarian lesions, a total of 113 ovarian serous tumors, including 62 serous cystadenocarcinomas and 19 serous borderline tumors, were studied on immunohistochemistry. For comparison, 32 benign serous tumors, including 12 serous papillary cystadenomas, 10 serous cystadenomas, and 10 serous surface papillomas, were also included. DEK was positive in 93.5% of serous cystadenocarcinomas (58/62), 63.2% of serous borderline tumors (12/19), and weakly positive in 15.6% of benign serous tumors (5/32). The strong positive signal was detected only in serous adenocarcinomas (80.6%, 50/62) and borderline tumors (21.1%, 4/19), but no serous benign tumors were strongly positive (0%, 0/32). Meanwhile, the strong positivity rate of DEK protein was significantly higher in grade 2 and grade 3 than in grade 1 ovarian cancers (P < 0.05), but there was no significant association between DEK protein expression level and International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage of serous ovarian adenocarcinoma (P > 0.05). In summary, DEK plays an important role in the progression of ovarian serous cancers. The detection of DEK protein expression should be useful for the diagnosis and prognosis of ovarian serous cancers, and DEK might be a useful molecular target for ovarian cancer therapy.

Ganglioneurocytoma: distinctive variant of central neurocytoma.

Reported herein is a case of central neurocytoma with differentiation toward ganglion cells, considered to be a typical case of ganglioneurocytoma. Tumor cells of various degree of differentiation toward ganglion cells were intermingled with typical neurocytoma cells in a fibrillary background, with transition of tumor cells from typical neurocytoma cells to differentiated ganglion cells evident throughout the tumor. The tumor cell nuclei were positive for NeuN. Fine granular positivity for synaptophysin was seen in the cytoplasm of the tumor cells, and background fibrils and the cytoplasm of some ganglioid cells were positive for neurofilament. Several cases of central neurocytoma with ganglioid cells have been reported, with some diagnosed as ganglioneurocytoma. However, histopathological details and persuasive figures have been lacking. It is considered that the diagnosis of ganglioneurocytoma should be applied to tumors displaying the following characteristics: (i) clinical aspects such as location, demarcation and growth rate consistent with neurocytoma; (ii) transition between neurocytoma cells and ganglion cells; and (iii) ganglioid cells distributed throughout the tumors.