Immunohistochemical Study of the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Phenotype in Cancer of Unknown Primary: Incidence, Correlations and Prognostic Utility

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been associated with metastatic dissemination and poor outcome in several solid tumour types. Our aim was to study its incidence and its prognostic significance in cancer of unknown primary (CUP). One hundred tumour samples of CUP were loaded in tis...

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Published in:Anticancer research 2012-04, Vol.32 (4), p.1273-1281
Main Authors: STOYIANNI, Aikaterini, GOUSSIA, Anna, BELLOU, Sofia, FOUNTZILAS, Georgios, MALAMOU-MITSI, Vassiliki, PAVLIDIS, Nicholas, PENTHEROUDAKIS, George, SIOZOPOULOU, Vassiliki, IOACHIM, Elli, KRIKELIS, Dimitrios, GOLFINOPOULOS, Vassilios, CERVANTES, Andres, BOBOS, Mattheos, FOTSIS, Theodoros
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biological and medical sciences
Cadherins - metabolism
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
Female
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Incidence
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Neoplasms, Unknown Primary - epidemiology
Neoplasms, Unknown Primary - metabolism
Neoplasms, Unknown Primary - pathology
Octamer Transcription Factor-3 - metabolism
Phenotype
Prognosis
Snail Family Transcription Factors
Tissue Array Analysis
Transcription Factors - metabolism
Tumors
Vimentin - metabolism
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Summary:The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been associated with metastatic dissemination and poor outcome in several solid tumour types. Our aim was to study its incidence and its prognostic significance in cancer of unknown primary (CUP). One hundred tumour samples of CUP were loaded in tissue microarrays and were studied for immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of E-cadherin, N-cadherin, vimentin, the EMT transcription factor (SNAIL) and the stem cell marker octamer-binding transcription marker 4(OCT4). An EMT phenotype was defined as low expression of E-cadherin, expression of N-cadherin with/without vimentin with concomitant expression of SNAIL, as assessed by percentage of tumour cell staining. Among 100 CUP cases, the histological diagnosis was adenocarcinoma in 55, squamous carcinoma in 20 and undifferentiated carcinoma in 15, with a high grade seen in 46. Therapy consisted of palliative chemotherapy, mostly platinum based. The median progression-free survival and overall survival (OS) were 7 and 12 months respectively. Distributional studies resulted in selection of IHC cut-offs for E-cadherin (negative when expressed in
ISSN:0250-7005
1791-7530