The "stone-like" pattern of LC3A expression and its clinicopathologic significance in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process that involves lysosomal degradations of cellular organelles. Microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3A (LC3A), an autophagic gene, is differentially expressed in human cancers. However, the relationship between LC3A expression and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been investigated. Tissue microarray-based immunohistochemistry was used to examine the expression patterns of LC3A in HCC. The resulting data were analyzed using receiver operating characteristic curves, Spearman's rank correlation, Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression modeling. Two distinct patterns of LC3A expression were observed in HCC: "stone-like" structuring and diffuse cytoplasmic expression. High levels of LC3A expression were more frequently observed in HCC tissues compared to the adjacent non-tumorous tissue. Correlation analyses indicated that high expression of the "stone-like" LC3A was correlated with greater levels of serum AFP, poorer tumor differentiation and the presence of vascular invasion. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed a significant association between high expression of the "stone-like" LC3A and unfavorable prognosis (P<0.001). Importantly, multivariate analysis (P<0.05) identified the "stone-like" expression of LC3A in HCC as an independent prognostic factor. Collectively, our data provide compelling evidence that "stone-like" expression of LC3A plays an important role in HCC progression and may act as a biomarker of prognosis for patients with HCC.

Long-term molecular changes in WHO grade II astrocytomas following radiotherapy.

Monitoring the long-term radiotherapy-associated molecular changes in low-grade gliomas (LGGs) facilitates the understanding of LGG response to radiotherapy. In this study, we used immunohistochemistry to analyze the expression of Ki-67, tumor protein P53 (TP53), P21, and P27 in 8 paired WHO grade II astrocytoma samples. The interval between radiotherapy (RT) and the second surgery was more than 3 months in all cases. The average Ki-67 labeling index (LI) was 5.3% in pre-RT samples and 11.54% in post-RT samples. Ki-67 LI was higher in the primary tumors that underwent malignant transformation observed at the second surgery after radiation. Post-RT Ki-67 LI decreased in 2 cases with an interval of less than 12 months between RT and the second surgery. TP53 expression was found in 3 out of 4 pre-RT samples with malignant transformation and in 1 out of 4 pre-RT samples without malignant transformation. Post-RT TP53 increased in 2 cases in which increased expression of P21 or P27 was also observed. Our study suggests that radiotherapy can inhibit WHO grade II astrocytoma proliferation as reflected by Ki-67 LI, but the effect attenuates with time. In addition, there is a tendency of malignant transformation for WHO grade II astrocytomas with a high Ki-67 level or TP53 expression in initial samples.

EZH2 protein: a promising immunomarker for the detection of hepatocellular carcinomas in liver needle biopsies.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A previous study of ours indicated that enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (EZH2) plays an important role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumorigenesis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential diagnostic utility of EZH2 in HCC. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was performed to examine the expression dynamics of EZH2 in two independent surgical cohorts of HCC and non-malignant liver tissues to develop a diagnostic yield of EZH2, HSP70 and GPC3 for HCC detection. The diagnostic performances of EZH2 and a three-marker panel in HCC were re-evaluated by using an additional biopsy cohort. RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated that the sensitivity and specificity of EZH2 for HCC detection was 95.8% and 97.8% in the testing cohort. Similar results were confirmed in the validation cohort. For diagnosis of well-differentiated HCCs, the sensitivity and specificity were 68.9% and 91.5% for EZH2, 62.5% and 98.5% for HSP70, 50.0% and 92.1% for GPC3, and 75.0% and 100% for a three-marker panel. In biopsies, positive cases for at least one marker increased from large regenerative nodule and hepatocellular adenoma (0/12) to focal nodular hyperplasia (2/20), dysplastic nodule (7/25), well-differentiated HCC (16/18) and moderately and poorly differentiated HCC (54/54). When at least two positive markers were considered, regardless of their identity, the positive cases were detected in 0/12 large regenerative nodules and hepatocellular adenomas, 0/20 focal nodular hyperplasias, 0/25 dysplastic nodules, 11/18 well-differentiated HCCs, 32/37 moderately differentiated HCCs and 15/17 poorly differentiated HCCs. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that EZH2 protein, as examined by immunohistochemistry, may serve as a promising diagnostic biomarker of HCCs, and the use of a three-marker panel (EZH2, HSP70 and GPC3) can improve the rate of detection of HCCs in liver biopsy tissues.

Knockdown of miR-21 in human breast cancer cell lines inhibits proliferation, in vitro migration and in vivo tumor growth.

INTRODUCTION: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs (20 to 24 nucleotides) that post-transcriptionally modulate gene expression. A key oncomir in carcinogenesis is miR-21, which is consistently up-regulated in a wide range of cancers. However, few functional studies are available for miR-21, and few targets have been identified. In this study, we explored the role of miR-21 in human breast cancer cells and tissues, and searched for miR-21 targets. METHODS: We used in vitro and in vivo assays to explore the role of miR-21 in the malignant progression of human breast cancer, using miR-21 knockdown. Using LNA silencing combined to microarray technology and target prediction, we screened for potential targets of miR-21 and validated direct targets by using luciferase reporter assay and Western blot. Two candidate target genes (EIF4A2 and ANKRD46) were selected for analysis of correlation with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis using immunohistochemistry on cancer tissue microrrays. RESULTS: Anti-miR-21 inhibited growth and migration of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells in vitro, and tumor growth in nude mice. Knockdown of miR-21 significantly increased the expression of ANKRD46 at both mRNA and protein levels. Luciferase assays using a reporter carrying a putative target site in the 3' untranslated region of ANKRD46 revealed that miR-21 directly targeted ANKRD46. miR-21 and EIF4A2 protein were inversely expressed in breast cancers (rs = -0.283, P = 0.005, Spearman's correlation analysis). CONCLUSIONS: Knockdown of miR-21 in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells inhibits in vitro and in vivo growth as well as in vitro migration. ANKRD46 is newly identified as a direct target of miR-21 in BC. These results suggest that inhibitory strategies against miR-21 using peptide nucleic acids (PNAs)-antimiR-21 may provide potential therapeutic applications in breast cancer treatment.

High expression of transcriptional coactivator p300 correlates with aggressive features and poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that p300 participates in the regulation of a wide range of cell biological processes and mutation of p300 has been identified in certain types of human cancers. However, the expression dynamics of p300 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its clinical/prognostic significance are unclear. METHODS: In this study, the methods of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blotting and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were utilized to investigate protein/mRNA expression of p300 in HCCs. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, spearman's rank correlation, Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Up-regulated expression of p300 mRNA and protein was observed in the majority of HCCs by RT-PCR and Western blotting, when compared with their adjacent non-malignant liver tissues. According to the ROC curves, the cutoff score for p300 high expression was defined when more than 60% of the tumor cells were positively stained. High expression of p300 was examined in 60/123 (48.8%) of HCCs and in 8/123 (6.5%) of adjacent non-malignant liver tissues. High expression of p300 was correlated with higher AFP level, larger tumor size, multiplicity, poorer differentiation and later stage (P < 0.05). In univariate survival analysis, a significant association between overexpression of p300 and shortened patients' survival was found (P = 0.001). In different subsets of HCC patients, p300 expression was also a prognostic indicator in patients with stage II (P = 0.007) and stage III (P = 0.011). Importantly, p300 expression was evaluated as an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (P = 0.021). Consequently, a new clinicopathologic prognostic model with three poor prognostic factors (p300 expression, AFP level and vascular invasion) was constructed. The model could significantly stratify risk (low, intermediate and high) for overall survival (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide a basis for the concept that high expression of p300 in HCC may be important in the acquisition of an aggressive phenotype, suggesting that p300 overexpression, as examined by IHC, is an independent biomarker for poor prognosis of patients with HCC. The combined clinicopathologic prognostic model may become a useful tool for identifying HCC patients with different clinical outcomes.

Decreased expression of PinX1 protein is correlated with tumor development and is a new independent poor prognostic factor in ovarian carcinoma.

Human interacting protein X1 (PinX1) has been identified as a critical telomerase inhibitor and proposed to be a putative tumor suppressor gene. Loss of PinX1 has been found in a large variety of malignancies, but the expression status in epithelial ovarian tumors has not been investigated. In this study, immunohistochemistry for PinX1 protein was performed on a tissue microarray (TMA) of epithelial ovarian tumors (informatively containing 25 cystadenomas, 29 borderline tumors, and 157 invasive carcinomas) and 12 normal ovaries. Receiver-operator curve (ROC) analysis was used to determine cut-off scores for tumor positivity and to evaluate patients' survival status. The threshold for PinX1 positivity was determined to be above 60% (area under the curve = 0.856, P < 0.001) based on the area under the ROC. Positive expression of PinX1 was observed in 100% of normal ovarian tissues, in 84% of cystadenomas, in 75.9% borderline tumors, and 66.2% of ovarian carcinomas. Decreased expression of PinX1 was strongly related to patients with poor prognostic factors regarding presence of lymph node metastasis (P = 0.024), distant metastasis (P < 0.001), and late International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (P < 0.001). In univariate survival analysis, a highly significant correlation between loss of PinX1 and shortened patient survival (mean, 48.2 months vs 99.2 months, P < 0.001) was displayed. Multivariate analysis demonstrated PinX1 expression (P = 0.027) was evaluated as an independent parameter. Our findings suggest that loss of PinX1 is an adverse independent molecular marker for epithelial ovarian carcinoma patients. PinX1 may be a novel target for telomerase-based anticancer therapy due to inhibiting telomerase activity.

MicroRNA miR-21 overexpression in human breast cancer is associated with advanced clinical stage, lymph node metastasis and patient poor prognosis.

To investigate the global expression profile of miRNAs in primary breast cancer (BC) and normal adjacent tumor tissues (NATs) and its potential relevance to clinicopathological characteristics and patient survival, the genome-wide expression profiling of miRNAs in BC was investigated using a microarray containing 435 mature human miRNA oligonucleotide probes. Nine miRNAs of hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-365, hsa-miR-181b, hsa-let-7f, hsa-miR-155, hsa-miR-29b, hsa-miR-181d, hsa-miR-98, and hsa-miR-29c were observed to be up-regulated greater than twofold in BC compared with NAT, whereas seven miRNAs of hsa-miR-497, hsa-miR-31, hsa-miR-355, hsa-miR-320, rno-mir-140, hsa-miR-127 and hsa-miR-30a-3p were observed to be down-regulated greater than twofold. The most significantly up-regulated miRNAs, hsa-mir-21 (miR-21), was quantitatively analyzed by TaqMan real-time PCR in 113 BC tumors. Interestingly, among the 113 BC cases, high level expression of miR-21 was significantly correlated with advanced clinical stage (P = 0.006, Fisher's exact text), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.007, Fisher's exact text), and shortened survival of the patients (hazard ratio [HR]=5.476, P < 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed this prognostic impact (HR=4.133, P = 0.001) to be independent of disease stage (HR=2.226, P = 0.013) and histological grade (HR=3.681, P = 0.033). This study could identify the differentiated miRNAs expression profile in BC and reveal that miR-21 overexpression was correlated with specific breast cancer biopathologic features, such as advanced tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and poor survival of the patients, indicating that miR-21 may serve as a molecular prognostic marker for BC and disease progression.

[Clinical significance of angiopoietin-2 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) and its clinical significance in oral squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: The expression of Ang-2 mRNA was measured by real-time RT-PCR, and the expression of Ang-2 protein in tissue samples was detected by immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: The mean dCt value of Ang-2 mRNA expression in the cancer tissue was 6.86 +/- 1.37, significantly lower than that in the paired adjacent non-cancerous tissue (7.95 +/- 2.08, P < 0.05), indicating a significantly higher expression of Ang-2 mRNA in the cancerous tissue than that in the adjacent non-cancerous tissue. The distribution of Ang-2 protein was found not only in the vascular endothelial cells but also in tumor cells. Semi-quantitative analysis revealed that the expression of Ang-2 protein in tumor specimens (53.6%) was significantly higher than that (24.0%) in the paired adjacent non-cancerous tissue (P < 0.05), the result was well consistent with that measured by RT-PCR. The dCt value of Ang-2 mRNA expression was 6.48 +/- 1.16 in the patients with metastasis in lymph nodes versus 7.16 +/- 1.49 in those without, with a non-significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05). As regards the clinical stages, no significant difference was found between the expressions of Ang-2 mRNA in stage I + II (7.11 +/- 1.63) and stage III + IV cases (6.49 +/- 1.10, P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Angiopoietin-2 protein is expressed not only in vascular endothelial cells, but also in tumor cells, suggesting that angiopoietin-2 may take part in angiogenesis in oral squamous cell carcinoma. However, our results that high expression of angiopoietin-2 mRNA is not correlated with lymph node metastasis and clinical stages, needs to be further verified in a large scale study.

Bmi-1 is a novel molecular marker of nasopharyngeal carcinoma progression and immortalizes primary human nasopharyngeal epithelial cells.

The Bmi-1 oncoprotein regulates proliferation and oncogenesis in human cells. Its overexpression leads to senescence bypass in human fibroblasts and immortalization of human mammary epithelial cells. In this study, we report that compared with normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cells (NPEC), Bmi-1 is overexpressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines. Importantly, Bmi-1 was also found to be overexpressed in 29 of 75 nasopharyngeal carcinoma tumors (38.7%) by immunohistochemical analysis. In contrast to nasopharyngeal carcinoma, there was no detectable expression of Bmi-1 in noncancerous nasopharyngeal epithelium. Moreover, high Bmi-1 expression positively correlated with poor prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. We also report that the overexpression of Bmi-1 leads to bypass of senescence and immortalization of NPECs, which normally express p16(INK4a) and exhibit finite replicative life span. Overexpression of Bmi-1 in NPECs led to the induction of human telomerase reverse transcriptase activity and reduction of p16(INK4a) expression. Mutational analysis of Bmi-1 showed that both RING finger and helix-turn-helix domains of it are required for immortalization of NPECs. Our findings suggest that Bmi-1 plays an important role in the development and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and that Bmi-1 is a valuable marker for assessing the prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. Furthermore, this study provides the first cellular proto-oncogene immortalized nasopharyngeal epithelial cell line, which may serve as a cell model system for studying the mechanisms involved in the tumorigenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

RIT1 suppresses esophageal squamous cell carcinoma growth and metastasis and predicts good prognosis.

Ras-like without CAAX1 (RIT1) protein is a member of Ras family, which plays critical roles in signaling pathways and cellular process regulation. However, the role of RIT1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is unclear. In this study, we found that the expression of RIT1 is downregulated in ESCC compared to corresponding non-tumor tissues. The low-level expression of RIT1 was correlated with poorer prognosis. Then we showed that RIT1 inhibited proliferation, invasion, and migration of ESCC cells, and silencing RIT1 by shRNA promoted tumorigenicity and metastasis in nude mice. We further demonstrated that RIT1 inhibited the malignant behaviors of ESCC through inhibiting the PI3K/AKT and MAPK pathway and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in ESCC cells. Our study also revealed that RIT1 increased drug sensitivity to cisplatin (CDDP), and this function could be carried out through downregulating stemness of ESCC. In conclusion, our study indicates for the first time that RIT1 displays tumor-suppressing functions in ESCC, and these functions were carried out by inhibiting MAPK and PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, inhibiting EMT, and downregulating cancer stemness of ESCC cells.

Primary small cell carcinoma of the esophagus: clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features of 21 cases.

BACKGROUND: Primary small cell carcinoma (SCC) of the esophagus is a rare and aggressive tumor with poor prognosis. In this study, we report the clinicopathological characteristics of 21 cases of small cell carcinoma of the esophagus treated at the Cancer Center of Sun Yat-Sen University, with particular focus on the histologic and immunohistochemical findings. METHODS: Twenty-one patient records were reviewed including presenting symptoms, demographics, disease stage, treatment, and follow-up. Histologic features were observed and immunohistochemical detection of cytokeratin (CK), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), neuron specific enolase (NSE), synaptophysin (Syn), chromogranin A (CgA), neuronal cell adhesion molecules (CD56), thyroid transcriptional factor-1 (TTF-1) and S100 protein (S100) was performed. RESULTS: The median age of patients in the study was 56 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 3.2:1. Histologically, there were 19 "homogenous" SCC esophageal samples and 2 samples comprised of SCC and well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. The percentages of SCC samples with positive immunoreactivity were Syn 95.2%, CD56 76.2%, TTF-1 71.4%, NSE 61.9%, CgA 61.9%, CK 57.1%, EMA 61.9%, and S100 19.0%, respectively. The median patient survival time was 18.3 months after diagnosis. The 2-year survival rate was 28.6%. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that esophageal SCC has similar histology to SCC that arises in the lung compartment, and Chinese patients have a poor prognosis. Higher proportion of positive labeling of Syn, CD56, CgA, NSE, and TTF-1 in esophageal SCC implicate that they are valuably applied in differential diagnosis of the malignancy.

[A survival of 103 cases of T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma].

OBJECTIVE: T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma was heterogeneous and relatively high incident in our country. It's response and prognosis were poor. This study was to analyze clinical feature and survival of T-NHL. METHODS: Records of 103 cases with T-NHL, treated from Dec 1998 to Dec 2004 in Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, were retrospectively analyzed. All the patients were classified according to WHO 2001 Classification Criteria. RESULTS: Median age of the whole group was 35 (ranged 2-78) years-old. Of the 103 cases, 68 were male, 35 were female; 25 (24.3%) received chemoradiotherapy, 70 (68.0%) received chemotherapy alone, 3 received radiotherapy and 5 received stem cell transplantation after complete remission. Median survival was 24.1 (ranged 0.8-84) months. 5-year survival rate was 24.3%. Kaplan-Meier analysis discovered that age > 60 years, advanced stage (stage II, IV), extranodal involvement, bulky disease, B symptom, performance status (PS) > or = 2, LDH elevated, hypoalbumin, median-high IPI (IPI > or = 2) were bad to prognosis, but Cox regression found that age > or = 60 years, performance status (PS) > or = 2S, hypoalbumin were the independent bad factors to prognosis. CONCLUSION: This study proved that age, albumin, PS were the independent factors to prognosis.

[Nuclear and cytoplasmic expressions of survivin in glioma and their prognostic value].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the nuclear and cytoplasmic expressions of survivin in human glioma, and their correlations to clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis. METHODS: A tissue microarray (TMA) based on 94 patients with glioma was constructed and then immunohistochemistry was used to examine the nuclear and cytoplasmic expressions of survivin in these glioma cohorts. Their correlations with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 94 samples of glioma, nuclear survivin was detectable in 21 (22.3%) cases and cytoplasmic survivin in 82 cases (87.2%). The positive rate of nuclear expression of survivin was significantly lower in grade I - II gliomas than in the grade III - IV gliomas (7.3% vs 34.0%, P = 0.005). Statistically significant associations were observed between nuclear survivin and recurrence (P = 0.031). Cytoplasmic expression of survivin was not related to any clinicopathological characteristics. The 5-year overall survival rate and 3-year progression-free survival rate were significantly lower in the nuclear survivin-positive group than in nuclear survivin-negative group (0% vs 39.50%, P < 0.001; 0% vs 27.52%, P = 0.021). The 5-year overall survival rate and 3-year progression-free survival rate in the cytoplasmic positive-group and negative-group were 43.60% vs 13.85% (P = 0.134), and 23.88% vs 0% (P = 0.965) respectively. A multivariate analysis was conducted according to the Cox regression model. The significantly independent prognostic factors for overall survival were nuclear expression of survivin, grade and age. The relative risk of death in the patients whose tumors were survivin positive compared with those whose tumors were survivin negative was 3.847. CONCLUSION: Nuclear expression of survivin is correlated with glioma differentiation and recurrence. It is a negative prognostic factor for progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with glioma.

[Value of 18F-FDG metabolic imaging in diagnosis and treatment of head and neck tumors and its mechanism study].

OBJECTIVE: To study the value of (18)F-FDG dual-head tomography with coincidence (DHTC) and single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) coincidence imaging in diagnosis and treatment of head and neck tumors and mechanism thereof and analyze the value of glucose transporter proteins in the mechanism of increased uptake glucose of head and neck malignant tumor. METHODS: Twenty-five patients with head and neck tumors were examined by CT or MRI and underwent (18)F-FDG DHTC and coincidence imaging. The results of these 2 different methods were compared. Fresh tissues of 38 patients with malignant tumors of the head-and-neck underwent RT-PCR and immunohistochemical examination. RESULTS: The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of (18)F-FDG coincidence imaging and registration with integrated CT (SPECT/CT) in diagnosis of the head and neck tumors was 100.0%, 87.5%, and 96.0% respectively, all significantly higher than those of the anatomical imaging (64.7%, 50.0%, and 60.0% respectively, all P < 0.05). For the lesions on the same site, SPECT/CT could diagnose exactly the primary tumor site of neck metastasis in four cases and diagnose the malignancy or benignancy of other four cases that anatomical imaging (CT/MRI) could not diagnose exactly. (18)F-FDG coincidence imaging and registration with integrated CT could find extra lesions of tumors. The results of RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry showed that the mRNA expression and protein expression of Glut-1 and Glut-3 were higher in the head and neck cancer than that in the normal tissue of head and neck or in the adjacent tissue (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: (18)F-FDG coincidence imaging and registration with integrated CT can be as a prospective tool that can judge the malignancy or benignancy of head and neck tumor, and stage and classify the tumor, and distinguish recurrence or necrosis of tumor after treatment by surgery or radiotherapy, and detect unknown primary tumor. The abnormal expressions of Glut-1 and Glut-3 may be correlated with the increased uptake of glucose of head and head cancer.

Oncogenic transformation by SEI-1 is associated with chromosomal instability.

Amplification of SEI-1, a cell cycle regulatory gene at 19q13.1, is commonly detected in ovarian cancer, suggesting a role in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer. In the present study, the oncogenic potential of SEI-1 was shown by anchorage-independent growth and tumor formation in nude mice with SEI-1-transfected NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells. Silencing of SEI-1 gene expression by small interfering RNAs in ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3 could inhibit cell growth as well as colony formation on soft agar. Chromosomal alterations including the formation of double minutes were observed in tumor cells derived from SEI-1-transformed NIH 3T3 cells. Micronulei formation, which is an indicator of nuclear abnormality and genomic instability, was markedly increased in SEI-1-transfected cells. These data suggest that the oncogenic role of SEI-1 might be mediated at least in part via an effect on genomic instability. Furthermore, overexpression of SEI-1 was associated with higher tumor grades and late Fesddration Internationale des Gynaecologistes et Obstetristes (FIGO) stages in ovarian carcinomas. These data strongly suggest that SEI-1 plays an important role in the development and progression of ovarian cancer.

Genomic comparison of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its precursor lesions by multi-region whole-exome sequencing.

Esophageal squamous dysplasia is believed to be the precursor lesion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC); however, the genetic evolution from dysplasia to ESCC remains poorly understood. Here, we applied multi-region whole-exome sequencing to samples from two cohorts, 45 ESCC patients with matched dysplasia and carcinoma samples, and 13 tumor-free patients with only dysplasia samples. Our analysis reveals that dysplasia is heavily mutated and harbors most of the driver events reported in ESCC. Moreover, dysplasia is polyclonal, and remarkable heterogeneity is often observed between tumors and their neighboring dysplasia samples. Notably, copy number alterations are prevalent in dysplasia and persist during the ESCC progression, which is distinct from the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma. The sharp contrast in the prevalence of the 'two-hit' event on TP53 between the two cohorts suggests that the complete inactivation of TP53 is essential in promoting the development of ESCC.The pathogenesis of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma is a multi-step process but the genetic determinants behind this progression are unknown. Here the authors use multi-region exome sequencing to comprehensively investigate the genetic evolution of precursor dysplastic lesions and untransformed oesophagus.

[Differential diagnosis between nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma and T-cell/histiocyte-rich B-cell lymphoma].

OBJECTIVE: To study the differential diagnosis between nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) and T-cell/histiocyte-rich B-cell lymphoma (TCRBCL). METHODS: 15 cases of NLPHL and 16 cases of TCRBCL were studied on both morphology and immunophenotype according to the WHO classification of lymphoid neoplasms. SP-immunohistochemical staining were performed on paraffin sections. In situ hybridization for EBER1/2 and gene rearrangement of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) were carried out in 3 cases of NLPHL and 4 cases of TCRBCL, respectively. RESULTS: Histologically, a few atypical large cells scattered in a background of small lymphocytes with or without histiocytes were a common finding in both NLPHL and TCRBCL. Of NLPHL, nodular pathern predominated in 11 cases, diffuse patterns without nodules in 3 cases and one case showed nodular and diffuse pattern intermixed with a increased number of large cells. 14 cases of TCRBCL showed diffuse pattern. One case with micronodular pattern involving the splenic white pulp. One case showed a combination of nodules of NLPHL, diffuse areas of TCRBCL and a sheet of large cells of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) within the same lymph node biopsy specimen. Immunophenotypically, the large cells showed and CD20, CD79a, bcl-6 and EMA positive, and CD15, CD30, CD3, CD45RO and LMP-1 negative. In NLPHL, small B cells and CD57 positive cells were common, whereas in TCRBCL, TIA-1 positive cytotoxic cells and histiocytes dominated, small B cells were scarce or absent. EBER1/2 were negative and gene rearrangement of IgH was found in all tested 3 cases of NLPHL and 4 cases of TCRBCL, respectively. CONCLUSION: There are some morphologic and immunophenotypic resemblance between NLPHL and TCRBCL. A combination of the morphological characteristics and the reactivity of the background cells for CD57 and TIA-1 seem to reliably discriminate between the entities and should therefore help to increase the interobserver reproducibility of diagnosis in the gray zone around Hodgkin lymphomas.

Identification of a candidate oncogene SEI-1 within a minimal amplified region at 19q13.1 in ovarian cancer cell lines.

High-level amplification of DNA sequence at 19q13.1 is one of the frequent genetic alterations in ovarian cancer. In an attempt to verify the minimal amplified region (MAR) at 19q13.1 and to identify the target oncogenes, 49 probes within a region from D19S425 to D19S907 ( approximately 19.5 cM) were used to survey the amplification status in four ovarian cancer cell lines that have been confirmed as containing amplification at 19q13.1. Two separated overlapping MARs, MAR1 (approximately 200 kb) and MAR2 (approximately 1.1 Mb), were identified at 19q13.1. Two candidate oncogenes, AKT2 and SEI-1, were identified in MAR2. Amplification and overexpression of these two genes in four ovarian cancer cell lines were confirmed by Southern and Northern blot analyses. The proliferation-related function of AKT2 and SEI-1 suggests that both genes are likely to be biological targets of an amplification event at 19q13.1 in ovarian cancer and to play important roles in ovarian tumorigenesis.

[High expression of nucleophosmin/B23 in hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To study the expression of nucleophosmin/B23 (B23) in tumor cells of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its clinicopathologic significance. METHODS: Mouse monoclonal antibodies against B23 were raised by recombinant protein and hybridoma technology. Immunohistochemical study for B23 was performed on 103 cases of HCC, 12 cases of focal nodular hyperplasia and 17 cases of native liver tissue adjacent to hepatic hemangioma. Fresh specimens from 10 cases of HCC and the adjacent liver tissue were also collected for reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analysis. The expression of B23 was analyzed and compared with that of proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in these specimens. RESULTS: RT-PCR and Western blot analysis showed that B23 expression in HCC was higher than that in adjacent liver tissue. Statistically significant difference in expressions of B23 and PCNA were also noted in the four groups studied (P < 0.01). B23 and PCNA expressions in HCC were higher than those in the other three groups (P < 0.01). There was also a statistically significant correlation between B23 and PCNA expressions amongst the four groups (r = 0.4769, P < 0.01). Besides, B23 expression in HCC correlated with pathologic tumor grading, serum alpha-fetal protein levels and cirrhotic status (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: B23 expression in HCC was significantly higher than that in liver tissues with non-malignant diseases. B23 may be used as a marker for neoplastic changes in liver cells and thus has potential clinicopathologic application.

Oncogenic role of eIF-5A2 in the development of ovarian cancer.

Amplification of 3q26 is one of the most frequent chromosomal alterations in many solid tumors, including ovarian, lung, esophageal, prostate, breast, and nasopharyngeal cancers. A candidate oncogene to eukaryotic initiation factor 5A2 (eIF-5A2), a member of eukaryotic initiation factor 5A subfamily, has been isolated from a frequently amplified region at 3q26.2. In this work, the tumorigenic ability of eIF-5A2 was demonstrated by anchorage-independent growth in soft agar and tumor formation in nude mice. Furthermore, antisense DNA against eIF-5A2 could inhibit cell growth in ovarian cancer cell line UACC-1598 with amplification of eIF-5A2 in form of double minutes. Cell growth rate in UACC-1598 was also inhibited when the expression level of EIF-5A2 was decreased by the reduction of the copy number of double minutes. The correlation of EIF-5A2 overexpression and clinical features of ovarian cancer was investigated using tissue microarray, and the result showed that eIF-5A2 overexpression was significantly associated with the advanced stage of ovarian cancer. These findings suggest that eIF-5A2 plays important roles in ovarian pathogenesis.