Objective: The objective of this study was to use IHC to compare leptin and leptin receptor expressions in clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCC) in non-obese and obese patients to determine the association between these proteins with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of ccRCC. Patients and Methods. The study involved 60 patients who underwent nephrectomy of which 34 were obese, as assessed using body mass index (BMI). Nephrectomy samples provided tissues of ccRCC and adjacent non-cancerous kidney. The intensity and localization of leptin and leptin receptor protein expressions were evaluated using IHC and correlated with clinicopathological features and clinical outcomes. Aperio ImageScope morphometry and digital pathology were applied to assess the IHC results. The chi-square test was used to determine if there was any significant association between the proteins and the clinicopathological features. The Kaplan-Meier test was used to determine the overall survival, disease-free survival, and recurrence-free survival. A value of p < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: There was neither significant difference in the overall cellular and nuclear expressions of leptin and leptin receptor between non-cancerous kidney and ccRCC tissues nor in non-obese and obese individuals with ccRCC.
Conclusion: In this present study, it was revealed that leptin and leptin receptor were not associated with tumour characteristics and progression of ccRCC patients. Interestingly, nuclear expression of leptin was significantly associated with overall survival. However, the significance of these proteins as biomarkers in other RCC histotypes is still unclear.
METHODS: Male Wistar rats (200-250 g) were divided into 4 groups according to the diet given: control group (normal diet), ChV group with three different doses (50, 150 and 300 mg/kg body weight), liver cancer- induced group (choline deficient diet + 0.1% ethionine in drinking water or CDE group), and the treatment group (CDE group treated with three different doses of ChV). Rats were killed at 0, 4, 8 and 12 weeks of experiment and blood and tissue samples were taken from all groups for the determination of tumour markers expression alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), M2-pyruvate kinase (M2-PK) and specific antigen for oval cells (OV-6).
RESULTS: Serum level of TGF-β increased significantly (p < 0.05) in CDE rats. However, ChV at all doses managed to decrease (p < 0.05) its levels to control values. Expressions of liver tumour markers AFP, TGF-β, M2-PK and OV-6 were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in tissues of CDE rats when compared to control showing an increased number of cancer cells during hepatocarcinogenesis. ChV at all doses reduced their expressions significantly (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Chlorella vulgaris has chemopreventive effect by downregulating the expression of tumour markers M2-PK, OV-6, AFP and TGF-β, in HCC-induced rats.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between clinico-pathological features and HER2 overexpression in breast cancer.
METHODS: This is a retrospective study conducted in the Department of Surgery, University Malaya Medical Centre. The association between HER2 overexpression, determined by immunohistochemistry, and other clinicopathological factors was evaluated in 996 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer treated from 2005 to 2007 using univariate and multivariate logistic regression.
RESULTS: HER2 overexpression occurred in 30.3% of patients. On bivariate analysis, HER2 overexpression was inversely related to ER expression (p<0.01) and PR expression (p<0.01). This overexpression was associated with a higher tumour grade, lymphovascular positivity and infiltrating ductal carcinoma subtype. On multivariate analysis, HER2 overexpression was significantly associated with higher tumour grade (p= 0.018, CI 1.25-11.04), PR negativity (p= 0.002, CI 0.30-0.77) and lymphovascular positivity (p= 0.042, CI 1.01-2.12).
CONCLUSIONS: HER2 overexpression was observed in 30.3% of Malaysian female breast cancer patients. This group of patients represents a more aggressive subtype of breast cancer with higher tumour grade, PR negativity and lymphovascular positivity. No significant relationship was established between HER2 overexpression and age, race, lymph node, ER, pathology subtype and stage of disease from this study.