Colorectal cancer and basement membranes: Clinicopathological correlations

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in males and the second in females. In 2008, an estimated 1.2 million people were diagnosed with and 608,700 people died of CRC. Besides diagnosis and treatment, prognosis is an important matter for cancer patients. Today, clinicopathological correlations have many applications in cancer prognostication. Examples include the prediction of the medium patient survival and the screening for patients suitable for specific therapeutic approaches. Apart from traditional prognostic factors, such as tumor stage and grade, new markers may be useful in clinical practice. Possible markers may result from the study of basement membranes (BMs). BM seems to play a role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer, so BM alterations may have prognostic significance as well. The purpose of this review is to briefly describe BMs and their relationship with CRC, in the aspect of clinicopathological correlations. © 2014 Charalampos C. Mylonas and Andreas C. Lazaris

Cytoplasmic Overexpression of HER2: a Key Factor in Colorectal Cancer

Contains fulltext : 111474.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Aging and the Impact of Solar Ultraviolet Radiation on the Expression of Type I and Type VI Collagen

Both endogenous and exogenous factors cause skin aging. This study aimed to compare the differential expressions of collagen type I (COL I) and collagen type VI (COL VI) in skins with biological aging and photoaging. In order to comprehend the impact of solar radiation in the dermis and the expression of COL I and COL VI, we studied the expression and their detection in healthy skin and in skin that had been characterized by aging. The hematoxylin and eosin staining protocol was performed in tissue paraffin blocks and they were then stained immunohistochemically with rabbit monoclonal anti-COL I and anti-COL VI antibodies. A total of 201 slides were studied with an Olympus BX 41 microscope, and the expressions of COL I and COL VI in the dermis were scored on a scale of 1 to 5, and then positively and statistically analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics software. The results show that solar elastosis changes the structure of the skin’s collagen and solar elastosis was observed in the skin tissues with photoaging without appearing to be affected by its appearance in relation to age. Solar radiation divides the collagen fibers more rapidly than normal biological aging and replaces the collagen fibers of the skin. COL I and COL VI are expressed differently along the dermis of healthy skin tissue and the skin tissue subject to photoaging. © 2023 by the authors

Evidence for frequent concurrent DCUN1D1, FGFR1, BCL9 gene copy number amplification in squamous cell lung cancer

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) targeted therapies are mostly based on activating mutations and rearrangements which are rare events in Lung Squamous Cell Carcinomas (LUSC). Recently advances in immunotherapy have improved the therapeutic repository for LUSC, but there is still an urgent need for novel targets and biomarkers. We examined 73 cases of LUSC for relative copy number amplification of DCUN1D1, BCL9, FGFR1 and ERBB2 genes and searched for correlations with molecular alterations and clinicopathological characteristics. In our cohort BCL9 gene was amplified in 57.5 % of the cases, followed by DCUN1D1 in 37 %, FGFR1 in 19 % whereas none of the cases were amplified in ERBB2 gene. The majority of the samples exhibited amplification in at least one gene while half of them displayed concurrent amplification of two/three genes. Interestingly, 93 % of the FGFR1 amplified cases were also found co amplified with DCUN1D1 and/or BCL9 genes. Linear correlations were found between BCL9 and DCUN1D1 as well as BCL9 and FGFR1 gene amplification. BCL9 and DCUN1D1 genes’ amplification was correlated with poorly differentiated tumors (p = 0.035 and p = 0.056 respectively), implying their possible role in tumor aggressiveness. This is the first study, to the best of our knowledge that examines the correlation of DCUN1D1 and BCL9 genes relative copy number amplification with molecular alterations and clinicopathologic characteristics of squamous cell lung cancer tissue samples. Our findings show concurrent amplification of genes in different chromosomes, with possible involvement in tumor aggressiveness. These results support the complexity of LUSC tumorigenesis and imply the necessity of multiple biomarkers / targets for a more effective therapeutic result in LUSC. © 2021 Elsevier Gmb

Positive BCL2L12 expression predicts favorable prognosis in patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) constitutes the third most frequent head and neck cancer. Several tissue biomarkers have been studied for their prognostic significance in LSCC. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognostic significance of BCL2L12, a new member of the BCL2 family, in primary LSCC along with well-examined biomarkers such as BCL2 and BAX. METHODS: Cancerous tissue specimens of patients with primary LSCC were collected during 2005 and 2012 as pretreatment tissue biopsy. The specimens were immunohistochemically evaluated for the protein expression of BCL2L12, BCL2 and BAX. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazard regression models were performed to evaluate prognosis. RESULTS: In the study cohort of 78 patients with primary LSCC, Kaplan-Meier survival curves demonstrated that advanced-stage LSCC patients with BCL2L12-positive tumors had significantly higher OS time in comparison with advanced-stage LSCC patients with BCL2L12-negative tumors (p= 0.014). Also, advanced-stage LSCC patients with BCL2L12-positive tumors had significantly lower risk of death from LSCC compared to advanced-stage LSCC patients with BCL2L12-negative tumors (HR = 0.228, 95%CI = 0.063-0.833, p= 0.025). CONCLUSIONS: BCL2L12 protein expression could be used as a favorable prognostic tissue biomarker in patients with primary advanced-stage LSCC. On the contrary, BCL2 and BAX did not correlate with prognosis in patients with primary LSCC. © 2019 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved