10 research outputs found
AR/ER Ratio Correlates with Expression of Proliferation Markers and with Distinct Subset of Breast Tumors
The co-expression of androgen (AR) and estrogen (ER) receptors, in terms of higher AR/ER ratio, has been recently associated with poor outcome in ER-positive (ER+) breast cancer (BC) patients. The aim of this study was to analyze if the biological aggressiveness, underlined in ER+ BC tumors with higher AR/ER ratio, could be due to higher expression of genes related to cell proliferation. On a cohort of 47 ER+ BC patients, the AR/ER ratio was assessed by immunohistochemistry and by mRNA analysis. The expression level of five gene proliferation markers was defined through TaqMan®-qPCR assays. Results were validated using 979 BC cases obtained from gene expression public databases. ER+ BC tumors with ratios of AR/ER ≥ 2 have higher expression levels of cellular proliferation genes than tumors with ratios of AR/ER < 2, in both the 47 ER+ BC patients (P < 0.001) and in the validation cohort (P = 0.005). Moreover, BC cases with ratios of AR/ER ≥ 2 of the validation cohort were mainly assigned to luminal B and HER2-enriched molecular subtypes, typically characterized by higher proliferation and poorer prognosis. These data suggest that joint routine evaluation of AR and ER expression may identify a unique subset of tumors, which show higher levels of cellular proliferation and therefore a more aggressive behavior
BRCA1- A ssociated protein 1 (BAP1) immunohistochemical expression as a diagnostic tool in malignant pleural mesothelioma classification: A large retrospective study
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a
highly aggressive disease with limited therapeutic options.
Histological subtype remains among the most reliable
prognostic factors, because the epithelioid subtype associated
with the best prognosis and the sarcomatoid subtype
with the worst. The biphasic subtype has an intermediate
prognosis, but its definitive histological diagnosis may be
challenging owing to the difficulty of assessing the neoplastic
nature of the stromal component. Recent data identified
BRCA1-associated protein 1 gene (BAP1) as one of the most
frequently mutated genes in MPM. Immunohistochemical
testing for BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) has been
proposed to be predictive for the detection of BAP1 mutation
in neoplastic cells. The aim of the present study was to define
the diagnostic usefulness of immunohistochemical determination
of BAP1 in MPM, with clinicopathological correlation