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Biomedical subjects

Philip Went

Publications and source records attributed to Philip Went.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Cell cycle phase distribution analysis in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: a significant number of cells reside in early G1-phase.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is a frequent non-Hodgkin lymphoma characterised by a heterogeneous clinical course. Assessment of cell cycle phase kinetics might be important for prediction of clinical behaviour and prognosis. METHODS: Distribution of neoplastic cells in CLL within the cell cycle was evaluated by determining the labelling indices (LI, i.e. percentage of positive cells) of markers specific for late G1-phase (cyclin E), S-phase (cyclin A), and G2/M-phase (cyclin B1), and Mcm2, a novel marker of proliferative potential, in a large cohort of patients (n = 79) using tissue microarray (TMA) technology. Utilising a combination of these markers, an algorithm was developed--subtracting the combined LIs of cyclin E, cyclin A and cyclin B1 from the LI of Mcm2--to determine the percentage of tumour cells residing in early G1-phase, which is probably a critical state for the malignant potential of CLL. RESULTS: 27.11% of cells had acquired proliferative potential as indicated by expression of Mcm2. Only a small number of cells were found to be in late G1-phase (7.16%), S-phase (3.31%) or G2/M-phase (0.98%), while 15.66% of cells were considered to be in early G1-phase. CONCLUSION: Cell cycle phase distribution can easily be assessed by immunohistochemistry in routinely processed paraffin-embedded specimens. A large number of neoplastic cells in CLL have proliferative potential, with a significant sub-population residing in early G1-phase. Estimates of these cells may identify cases likely to exhibit a more aggressive biological behaviour and adverse clinical course.

Adult↗

Cancer-associated carbohydrate identification in Hodgkin's lymphoma by carbohydrate array profiling.

Tumor-associated carbohydrates have potential not only as diagnostic tools but also as specific therapeutic targets. Their identification, however, has been hampered by the lack of suitable technologies. We used carbohydrate array technology to compare serum antibody (IgG and IgM) levels against 37 different carbohydrates between classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (cHL) patients and age/sex-matched healthy controls. Serum IgM levels measured by ELISA against 2 of the 5 carbohydrates identified using this technique, L-alpha-arabinose (L-Araf) and alpha-N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc(alpha)), were higher (F values of 11.30 and 18.27, respectively) in a cohort of cHL patients (n = 16) than either diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients (n = 18) or control sera (n = 12). Higher anti-L-Araf IgM levels in cHL patients were associated with cytosine arabinoside treatment (p < 0.05). The GalNAc(alpha) glycotope, Tn, was found to be heterogeneously expressed in the Reed-Sternberg cells of 9/20 (45%) cHL cases, but not in malignant cells of 25 cases of lymphocyte-predominant HL or another 21 hematological disorders (291 cases) examined immunohistochemically. Tn was expressed in 41/238 (17%) classical HL cases present on a tissue microarray. Expression was associated with CD79a and LMP1 expression and negatively with p27(KIP1) expression (p < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed a trend towards improved relapse-free survival with Tn expression although this was not statistically significant (p = 0.271). We suggest that this technique could provide a powerful tool for identifying novel carbohydrates in other cancers.

Acetylgalactosamine↗

Construction and validation of a bone marrow tissue microarray.

BACKGROUND: The use of tissue microarrays (TMAs) is now a generally accepted method for the investigation of solid tumours. However, little is known about the applicability of the TMA technique for analysis of patients with acute leukaemia. A bone marrow (BM)-TMA analysis with 15 different immunohistochemical markers was performed. The TMA was validated by comparison with the corresponding full tissue sections. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A BM-TMA comprising 148 cases of acute leukaemia, including 115 acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and 33 acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) cases, was constructed. Expression of CD3, CD10, CD15, CD20, CD34, CD61, CD68, CD79a, CD99, CD117, CD138, myeloperoxidase, haemoglobin A1, glycophorin and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase was immunohistochemically analysed. 50 cases of the TMA were directly compared with the corresponding full tissue section to validate the results. RESULTS: Morphologically and immunohistochemically, 6 (4%) of 148 cases and 765 (11%) cores of 6912 individual analyses were not evaluable. A direct comparison of TMA cases with conventional full sections showed a concordance of the results of 100%. CONCLUSIONS: The small size of bone-marrow biopsies and the presence of bony trabeculae do not preclude construction and analysis of acute leukaemia TMAs. Acute leukaemia cases on TMA displayed the characteristic phenotypic profiles expected in different AML and ALL subtypes. Therefore, the TMA technique is also a promising method for high-throughput analysis of combined marker expression and clinicopathological correlations in patients with leukaemia.

Acute Disease↗

Overexpression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (Ep-CAM) is an independent prognostic marker for reduced survival of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Currently available clinical and molecular factors provide still an insufficient prognostic and predictive assessment for patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). To identify a potential molecular target and prognostic/predictive factor for EOC, we investigated in a retrospective study the prognostic value of Ep-CAM overexpression in EOC. METHODS: We assessed by immunohistochemistry the expression of the Ep-CAM antigen on tissue microarrays containing paraffin-embedded tissue samples of 199 patients with documented EOC. Patients were operated for ovarian cancer in the period between June 1980 and January 2000. RESULTS: We observed a rate of Ep-CAM overexpression of 68.8%. Ep-CAM overexpression was significantly related to a decreased overall survival (P = 0.036). The prognostic power of Ep-CAM overexpression was particularly strong in patients with stage III and IV disease. In fact, in this subgroup, median overall survival was twofold higher in patients without as compared to patients with Ep-CAM overexpression (46 vs. 23 months, P < 0.01). Univariate analysis revealed a correlation with histologic grade. We observed a significantly higher rate of Ep-CAM overexpression (83.5%) in grade 3 tumors. Histologic subtypes associated with a higher rate of Ep-CAM overexpression were serous carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, undifferentiated carcinoma, clear cell carcinoma, and endometrioid carcinoma. Cox regression analysis showed Ep-CAM overexpression to be an independent prognostic marker (P = 0.037, RR = 1.64). CONCLUSIONS: This retrospective analysis demonstrates for the first time an independent prognostic value of Ep-CAM overexpression in patients with EOC. Ovarian cancer patients with Ep-CAM overexpressing tumors are frequent and would qualify for treatment with Ep-CAM-specific immunotherapeutic approaches.

Adult↗

Marker expression in peripheral T-cell lymphoma: a proposed clinical-pathologic prognostic score.

PURPOSE: Although peripheral T-cell lymphoma, unspecified (PTCL/U), is the most common T-cell tumor in Western countries, no study to date has been based on the application of a wide panel of markers to a large series of patients and assessed the impact of phenotype on survival. We evaluated the expression of 19 markers in 148 PTCLs/U and 45 PTCLs of the angioimmunoblastic type (AILD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The analysis was performed on tissue microarrays by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. Clinical data were available in 93 PTCL/U patients, most of whom had been included in a previous study proposing a prognostic index (PIT). RESULTS: An aberrant phenotype with frequent loss of CD5 and/or CD7 was typical for PTCLs, irrespective of whether they were U or AILD. Aberrantly expressed proteins rarely included CD20, CD15, and CD30. Positivity for Epstein-Barr virus-associated small RNAs and CD15 expression emerged as adverse prognostic factors. Among PTCLs/U, the proliferation-associated protein Ki-67 turned out to be prognostically relevant and was integrated in a new predictive score, incorporating age (> 60 years), high lactate dehydrogenase, poor performance status, and Ki-67 > or = 80%. This score was associated with the patient outcome (P < .0001) and was found to be more robust than PIT (P = .0043) in the present series. CONCLUSION: Our retrospective analysis shows a wide range of protein expression in PTCLs and proposes a new prognostic index. The latter represents one of the first examples of mixed score (including patient- and tumor-specific factors) applied to malignant lymphomas and may be the basis for future prospective therapeutic trials.

Adult↗

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with overexpression of cyclin e substantiates poor standard treatment response and inferior outcome.

PURPOSE: Gold standard to predict survival and stratify patients for risk-adapted therapy in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the international prognostic index, although it does not consider the molecular heterogeneity of DLBCL. Deregulation of cyclin E (CCNE) is a strong predictor of poor prognosis in some neoplastic diseases. In tumor cells, it induces chromosomal instability with an increased rate of aneuploidy/polyploidy. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We analyzed in this retrospective study the prognostic value of immunohistochemical CCNE expression on a validated tissue microarray containing 101 de novo DLBCLs and, in 9 cases, the CCNE-induced chromosomal instability as assessed by cytometry. RESULTS: Forty-six of 98 evaluable DLBCLs expressed CCNE in a mean proportion of 20 +/- 29% of tumor cells; 38 cases expressed CCNE in >/=20% of tumor cells. CCNE-positive samples were aneuploid compared with near tetraploidy in CCNE-negative cases. Multivariate analysis showed CCNE expression in >/=20% of tumor cells to be an international prognostic index-independent, Adriamycin-based treatment-independent, and BCL2-independent prognostic factor for poor disease-specific survival. CCNE expression in >/=80% of tumor cells was associated with dismal short-term prognosis. CCNE expression in >/=50% of tumor cells emerged as an independent predictive factor for standard CHOP treatment resistance. CONCLUSIONS: CCNE expression assessment is easy on paraffin-embedded tissue. The high prognostic value of CCNE expression in DLBCL may be the basis for future prospective trials. In addition, a high CCNE expression hints at the presence of a possible target for individualized cancer therapy.

Aged↗

Expression of minichromosome maintenance protein 2 as a marker for proliferation and prognosis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: a tissue microarray and clinico-pathological analysis.

BACKGROUND: Minichromosome maintenance (MCM) proteins are essential for the initiation of DNA replication and have been found to be relevant markers for prognosis in a variety of tumours. The aim of this study was to assess the proliferative activity of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in tissue microarray (TMA) using one of the minichromosome maintenance proteins (Mcm2) and to explore its potential value to predict prognosis. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry for Mcm2 was performed on TMAs constructed from 302 cases of DLBCL. A monoclonal mouse antibody was used after heat induced antigen retrieval. Mcm2 expression was scored quantitatively. Positivity for Mcm2 was defined as presence of nuclear expression of Mcm2 in greater than or equal to 40 % of tumour cells. A statistical analysis was carried out of the association of Mcm2 and the clinico-pathological characteristics. RESULTS: Mcm2 expression was clearly evident in the nuclei of proliferating non-neoplastic cells and tumour cells. Positivity for Mcm2 was found in 46% (98/211) of analysable cases. A significant correlation existed between Mcm2 expression and presence of bulky disease (p = 0.003). Poor disease specific survival was observed in patients with DLBCL positive for Mcm2 expression in the univariate analysis (p = 0.0424). CONCLUSION: Mcm2 expression can be used to assess tumour proliferation and may be useful as an additional prognostic marker to refine the prediction of outcome in DLBCL.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗

Aberrant expression of cell cycle regulators in Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The characteristic Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma, although highly positive for proliferation markers, do not accumulate to excessive cell numbers. These cells are characterized by abortive mitotic cycles, leading to multinucleation or cell death in mitosis. We have previously described high expression of G1-phase cyclins in classical Hodgkin's lymphoma, which could explain the high percentage of cells staining for proliferation markers. To further our understanding of proliferation control in classical Hodgkin's lymphoma, we extended our immunohistochemical analysis to the main S-phase cyclin, cyclin A, and its regulators p21CIP1 and p27KIP1. Expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was used as an additional marker for cells being in either S- or G2-phase. In 47% (112/239) of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma cases p21CIP1 was detected within a mean frequency of 15% positive Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells per case. Similarly, 47% (116/249) of the cases stained positively for p27KIP1 with a mean frequency of expression in Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells of 12%. In contrast, 90% of the cells in all 246 evaluable classical Hodgkin's lymphoma cases were positive for PCNA. In addition, 98% of Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells in 99% (250/253) of the cases stained strongly positive for cyclin A. These findings further corroborate the hypothesis that Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells exhibit a disturbed cell cycle with an abnormally short or even absent G1-phase. In contrast to other tumors, expression of PCNA or cyclin A had no prognostic value for patient survival.

Adolescent↗

Rare expression of T-cell markers in classical Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma are primarily of B-cell origin, although there are instances of T-cell antigen expression suggesting T-cell origin. We comprehensively analyzed expression of various T-cell antigens in 259 classical Hodgkin's lymphoma cases using the tissue microarray technique. Expression of the T-cell antigens CD2, CD3, CD4, CD5, CD7 and CD8 was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells of T-cell marker-positive cases were microdissected and analyzed by a multiplex polymerase chain reaction for clonal immunoglobulin heavy chain- and T-cell receptor gamma gene rearrangements. In all, 12 cases (5%) expressed at least one T-cell marker in the following order: CD2 in 11 cases, CD4 in five, CD3 in two, and CD5 and CD8 in one case each; there were no CD7-positive cases, and five cases (2%) expressed more than one T-cell antigen. In positive cases, a mean fraction of 40% of the Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells (range 20-100%) expressed the analyzed T-cell markers. Two cases (<1%) evidenced clonal T-cell receptor gamma gene rearrangement. Phenotypic expression of T-cell antigens in Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma is rare (5%), while genotypically, less than 1% of classical Hodgkin's lymphomas are of possible T-cell origin. Therefore, T-cell antigen expression on Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells is aberrant in the majority of cases and only infrequently classical Hodgkin's lymphomas are of T-cell origin.

Antigens, CD↗

Expression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCam) in renal epithelial tumors.

EpCam is an epithelial adhesion molecule expressed in a broad range of carcinomas. Clinical trials with specific humanized anti-EpCam antibodies have shown promising results and have been inaugurated in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) therapy. To study the EpCam expression profile, primary renal cell neoplasms as well as corresponding metastases were evaluated by immunohistochemistry in tissue microarrays. EpCam expression in oncocytomas and chromophobe RCCs was determined on conventional large sections. Moderate or strong EpCam expression was found in eighteen percent of clear cell (n=147), 75% of chromophobe (n=12), and 55% of papillary RCCs (n=20), but not in oncocytomas (n=3). On large sections, 90% of chromophobe RCCs (n=20) showed a strong and homogeneous positivity, whereas oncocytomas (n=15) revealed EpCam positivity in single tumor cells or small clusters. Fourteen percent of RCC metastases (n=97) showed EpCam expression. Patients with EpCam expressing clear cell RCC showed a trend toward a better prognosis in a Cox regression analysis including stage, grade, and necrosis. The data suggest EpCam as a potential therapeutic target in a subset of patients with RCC. In addition, expression patterns of EpCam could become a helpful tool in the discrimination of chromophobe RCC and oncocytoma.

Adult↗

Cyclin B1 expression is an independent prognostic marker for poor outcome in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most frequent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the Western world; it is characterized by marked genetic, morphological and clinical heterogeneity. The identification of prognostic markers could help to develop risk-adapted treatment strategies. As proliferation of cells is essential for tumour growth, analysis of the cell cycle and its individual phases might give additional information on tumour progression and clinical behaviour. To investigate the prognostic value of proteins specifically related to the cell cycle phases S, G2 and M in DLBCL, the expression of cyclin A as a marker of S phase and cyclin B1 as a G2/M phase marker were analysed in combination with other clinicopathological parameters in a large cohort of patients. Expression of cyclin B1 and cyclin A were determined by immunohistochemistry using tissue microarray methodology. Immunoreactivity for cyclin B1 and cyclin A was correlated with clinical data using a two-sided Fisher's exact test. Impact on overall survival was analysed by the Kaplan-Meier method. A negative prognostic impact was found for expression of cyclin B1. Nuclear and/or cytoplasmic staining in > or = 1% of tumour cells was significantly associated with shorter overall survival in the multivariate analysis (p=0.008). Furthermore, the prognostic impact of cyclin B1 expression was independent of the tumour stage. No prognostic significance was found for expression of cyclin A. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the independent prognostic value of an expression of cyclin B1 in DLBCL and proposes its evaluation as a prognostic marker in the assessment of this entity which is easily applicable in daily routine practice.

Aged↗

High Ep-CAM expression is associated with poor prognosis in node-positive breast cancer.

Previous studies in small series of patients with invasive breast cancer suggested a prognostic value of Ep-CAM overexpression in primary tumor tissue. To corroborate these findings, we performed a retrospective analysis of Ep-CAM expression using a tissue microarray containing tissue specimens from a large patient set. Ep-CAM expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in breast cancer tissue from 1715 patients with documented raw survival data. High level Ep-CAM expression (overexpression) was found in 41.7% of tumor samples, low level expression was found in 48.0% and no expression in 10.3% of tumor samples. Ep-CAM expression predicted poor overall survival in this patient cohort (p < 0.0001). Overall survival decreased significantly with increasing Ep-CAM expression. However, in this patient sample Ep-CAM expression was not an independent prognostic marker by multivariate analysis. Subgroup analysis revealed that Ep-CAM expression was a prognostic marker in node-positive (p < 0.0001) but not in node-negative (p = 0.58) breast cancer patients. Intriguingly, Ep-CAM expression was predictive for a dismal prognosis in patients receiving adjuvant cytotoxic (p = 0.03) or hormonal therapy (p < 0.0001) but not in untreated patients (p = 0.41). In summary, this study provides strong evidence that expression of Ep-CAM is a powerful marker of poor prognosis in node-positive invasive breast carcinoma and a potential predictive marker of sensitivity to adjuvant hormonal and/or cytotoxic treatment modalities.

Aged↗

High-throughput tissue microarray analysis of G1-cyclin alterations in classical Hodgkin's lymphoma indicates overexpression of cyclin E1.

Deregulation of G1-cyclins (CCN) plays a key role in the pathogenesis of many human malignancies, including non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs). In contrast to NHL, little is known about phenotypic and genotypic changes in the regulation of the cell cycle in classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (cHL). To facilitate analysis of aberrant gene expression in cHL, a lymphoma tissue microarray (TMA) containing 752 cores of 330 different cHL samples was constructed. Direct comparison of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1) expression in Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells on conventional full sections with the corresponding duplicate/triplicate tumour cores on the TMA showed a concordance of 100%, indicating that cHL-TMA is a reliable and representative method for evaluating gene expression profiles in situ. Using TMA technology, protein expression and gene amplification of different G1-CCNs in cHL were analysed. Among the G1-CCNs analysed, cyclin E (CCNE) was expressed in 212/253 cases (84%). In most of the individual tumours, over 75% of the HRS cells stained positive for CCNE, suggesting that CCNE is overexpressed in cHL. This overexpression was not due to CCNE gene amplification, as judged by fluorescence in situ hybridization, and did not correlate with EBV infection, as assessed by the expression of LMP-1. Thus, the overexpression of CCNE could be caused by profound changes in HRS cell-cycle regulation that could contribute to the malignant phenotype.

Cyclin E↗

Morphologic changes and altered gene expression in an epithelioid hemangioendothelioma during a ten-year course of disease.

Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) is a rare low-grade malignant vascular neoplasm with unpredictable prognosis. We report on a patient suffering from a vascular neoplasm with primary manifestation in the skeleton and subsequent development of lesions of EHE in the spleen, liver and lung. Based on the assumption that involvement of visceral organs was due to metastatic spread, changes in clinical behavior, morphology, and proliferation index suggest malignant progression of the tumor. Analyzing the expression of genes known to be involved in the pathogenesis of vascular tumors, we found that the appearance of less differentiated tumor was paralleled by an accumulation of TP53 and murine double minute-2 (MDM-2) protein, decreased caveolin-1 (CAV-1) expression, and increased vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. Mutations of the von-Hippel-Lindau-tumor-suppressor-gene (VHL) were excluded as mechanism of VEGF upregulation. Therefore, we propose that the expression of TP53, MDM-2, CAV-1 and VEGF as a marker of biologic behavior be verified in a larger case study of EHE.

Arabidopsis Proteins↗