Neu amplification is thus associated with neu protein overproduction in tumors and lymph node metastases, and a routine antibody staining technique can discriminate a high level of neu protein expression from levels commonly present in tumors with normal neu copy numbers.
The c-erbB2/neu and c-erbB oncogenes showed two- to three-fold higher levels of RNA in papillary carcinomas and lymph node metastases as well as in one adenoma when compared to non-tumour tissue.
Neu amplification is thus associated with neu protein overproduction in tumors and lymph node metastases, and a routine antibody staining technique can discriminate a high level of neu protein expression from levels commonly present in tumors with normal neu copy numbers.
Neu amplification is thus associated with neu protein overproduction in tumors and lymph node metastases, and a routine antibody staining technique can discriminate a high level of neu protein expression from levels commonly present in tumors with normal neu copy numbers.
The elevated expression of the c-erbB-2 protein was most strongly correlated with lymph-node metastasis (P less than 0.001), suggesting that c-erbB-2 expression is involved in promotion of the lymph-node metastasis of human breast cancers.
We have found that TGF-alpha and EGF-R/c-erbB RNAs were co-expressed at significantly higher levels in papillary thyroid carcinomas and their lymph-node metastases than in non-neoplastic thyroid tissues.
Higher SPF values were significantly correlated with aneuploidy (p less than 0.001), presence of necrosis (p less than 0.001), lack of estrogen receptor (p less than 0.0001), high nuclear grade (p less than 0.001), vascular invasion (p less than 0.003), tumor size (p less than 0.006), and high histologic grade (p less than .004) but not the presence of lymph node metastases (p greater than 0.56).
We also observed a low level of expression of RNA specific for insulin-like growth factor I in these tumors, which was highest in a lymph-node metastasis.
We have found that TGF-alpha and EGF-R/c-erbB RNAs were co-expressed at significantly higher levels in papillary thyroid carcinomas and their lymph-node metastases than in non-neoplastic thyroid tissues.
Relatively high c-Ha-ras transcript levels were found in 18% of lymph node metastases and in 21% of primary tumours, indicating no significant differences between these cancers.
Two mutations were detected: an A----G transition causing a glutamine to arginine amino acid substitution at codon 61 of the Ha-ras gene in a primary prostatic duct adenocarcinoma and a G----T transversion causing a glycine to valine amino acid substitution at codon 12 of the Ha-ras gene in a prostate tumor cell line (TSU-PR1) derived from a lymph node metastasis.
Spontaneously occurring microscopic lung and lymph node metastases (in athymic mice) of a low metastatic human lung carcinoma cell line, UCP3, and its high metastatic variant, MV522, were isolated.
A homozygous deletion of nm23-H1 was observed in a lymph node metastasis of a colorectal carcinoma, indicating that nm23-H1 can be recessively inactivated.
Patients with a high-level expression of IL-6 had significantly greater incidences of lymph node metastasis and a larger increase in serum C-reactive protein than those without it.
This study showed that nm23 expression in human breast cancer was associated with good prognosis and a lack of lymph node metastasis and suggests that the nm23 gene product may play an important role in suppressing the metastatic phenotype.
Patients with a high-level expression of IL-6 had significantly greater incidences of lymph node metastasis and a larger increase in serum C-reactive protein than those without it.
In conclusion, in this study Ki-67 immunostaining correlated with other indices of cell proliferation (SPF and Grade) and with some features of tumor aggressiveness (DNA aneuploidy and lymph node metastases) but seemed to be independent of some biological markers (EGR-r and c-erbB-2).
Similarly, c-erbB-2-positive tumors were difficult to resect completely, were associated with lymph node metastasis more frequently, and showed lower disease-free survival than negative cases (P less than .05).
RNA was extracted from 51 thyroid tissue samples from 34 of the above patients, and c-erbB-2 mRNA was analysed by slot-blot hybridisation. c-erbB-2 mRNA was detectable in all samples, but papillary carcinomas and lymph node metastases showed significantly higher levels of c-erbB-2 mRNA compared to non-neoplastic tissue.