The association between nm23 gene expression and survival in patients with sarcomas

Ja Royds,Rc Rees,Mh Robinson,Tj Stephenson,C Fisher

doi:10.1038/bjc.1997.204

Abstract

The relationship between the expression of nm23, a putative metastasis-suppressor gene and prognosis was determined for 88 patients with sarcomas. Immunohistochemistry using immunopurified anti-nm23 peptide antibodies was performed and the results of each case graded according to the degree of staining. Univariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to determine the prognostic significance of nm23 staining for sarcoma patients. Expression of nm23 was found to increase in line with metastatic potential in many cases but this did not reach significance for the study as a whole. However, the possibility of nm23 loss occurring in association with metastasis cannot be ruled out in some more aggressive sarcomas, as was demonstrated for six patients with low-scoring, unclassified and synovial sarcomas that had metastasized. The time to metastasis was longer for patients with grade 3 sarcomas (50-75% of tumour cells staining) than similar patients in other staining groups. These results suggest that expression of nm23 genes in sarcomas is variable and has no value as a prognostic indicator for these mesenchymal tumours.

Highlights

Sheffield Sl0 2SJ, UK; 31nstitute for Cancer Studies, Sheffield Sl0 2RX, UK; 4Sarcoma Unit, Royal Marsden Hospital, London SW3 6JJ, UK
Staining for nm23 was predominately cytoplasmic but nuclear staining was seen in some sections (Figures 1-4)
Comparis;on of these two groups, one of high, the other of low metastaticc potential, revealed that, the average time to metastasi: s was much shorter for the highly metastatic unclassified/syno'vial group (297 days compared with 667 days), this difference was negligible if only those tumours with staining scores of 4 were compared (355 days compared with 327 days)

Summary

Introduction

Sheffield Sl0 2SJ, UK; 31nstitute for Cancer Studies, Sheffield Sl0 2RX, UK; 4Sarcoma Unit, Royal Marsden Hospital, London SW3 6JJ, UK. No significant association between tumour variables (type, site, size, grade), patient variables (sex, age), length of survival or time to metastasis and the degree of nm23 staining was seen Nm23 expression did not correlate with histological type, grade or metastatic potential of the tumour.

Results

Conclusion