Impact of mistletoe lectin binding in breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: One of the most often used complementary or alternative anticancer therapeutics for breast cancer is mistletoe extract with Viscum album lectin (VAA-1) as the leading component. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between VAA-1 binding in breast cancer and disease outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: VAA-1 binding to either tumour cells or tumour infiltrating inflammatory cells was examined by immunohistochemical staining of paraffin tissue sections from breast cancer patients (n=226). RESULTS: About 34% of breast cancer tumour cells displayed a strong VAA-1 binding. Kaplan-Meier statistics revealed an inverse correlation between disease outcome and presence of strong VAA-1 binding to tumour cells. CONCLUSION: As binding of VAA-1 indicates the presence of galactose molecules in saccharide structures of the cytoplasm or cell membrane, we conclude that the amount of galactose-containing glycoproteins, mucoproteins and glycolipids in breast cancer tumour cells is related to disease outcome.

Telomerase activity in chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

Patients with ulcerative colitis have an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer. Telomerase appears to be associated with cellular immortality and might serve as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in carcinogenesis. To test this hypothesis we measured telomerase by a score from 0 (no activity) to 4 (very high activity) in specimens obtained surgically from seven patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon. Intraindividual comparison was made among normal tissue (mean score +/- SD: 0.7 +/- 1.0), tissues adjacent to the tumor (2.7 +/- 0.8), and the tumor center (3.0 +/- 1.0). In addition, from 18 patients with ulcerative colitis, 10 patients with Crohn's disease, and 14 patients without chronic inflammatory bowel disease, biopsies were collected from normal and inflamed areas of the colon. Independent of the duration (0-32 years), grade, and location of the diseases, the telomerase activities were comparable, ranging from 0.4 to 1.0 in ulcerative colitis and from 0.3 to 0.6 in Crohn's disease and averaging 0.4 in controls. Apparently low telomerase activities are present in the mucosa of all patients and the enzyme is not yet upregulated in the potentially premalignant state of active ulcerative colitis, dismissing its prognostic value as an early tumor marker for this disorder.