Abstract
Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of Snail, galectin-3, and IGF1R in benign and malignant pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) and explore their role in the diagnosis of malignant PPGL. Methods We retrospectively collected and analyzed surgical tumor tissue from 226 patients initially diagnosed with PPGL who underwent surgery from Jan. 2009 to Jan. 2016 at West China Hospital, Sichuan University. We observed and quantified the expression of Snail, galectin-3, and IGF1R in paraffin-embedded samples by immunohistochemical staining. Results The significant difference in survival time among the three groups (benign PHEO, benign PGL, and potentially malignant PPGL) was compared by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The positive staining of Snail, galectin-3, and IGF1R in the benign PHEO group was significantly lower than that in the other three groups (P < 0.001). The Kaplan-Meier survival plots indicated that the survival time of the patients with intense positive staining was significantly lower than that of the patients with weak positive staining. Conclusion The intense expression of Snail, galectin-3, and IGF1R may be valuable indicators for the diagnosis of malignant PPGL.
Highlights
Pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) are rare tumors arising from chromaffin cells that commonly produce one or more catecholamines, including epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine
Malignancy is defined as the presence of metastases in nonchromaffin tissue
Among all 226 patients, 2 patients were diagnosed with malignant PPGL at the initial pathologic evaluation and the remaining 224 cases were divided into 3 groups and followed until Jan. 2017 to obtain the clinical outcomes
Summary
The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of Snail, galectin-3, and IGF1R in benign and malignant pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) and explore their role in the diagnosis of malignant PPGL. The significant difference in survival time among the three groups (benign PHEO, benign PGL, and potentially malignant PPGL) was compared by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The positive staining of Snail, galectin-3, and IGF1R in the benign PHEO group was significantly lower than that in the other three groups (P < 0:001). The Kaplan-Meier survival plots indicated that the survival time of the patients with intense positive staining was significantly lower than that of the patients with weak positive staining. The intense expression of Snail, galectin-3, and IGF1R may be valuable indicators for the diagnosis of malignant PPGL
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